A wing of the Faculty of Social Sciences Complex housing a Lecture Auditorium at the Benue State University,BSU, Makurdi, has collapsed.
The building was said to have collapsed at the early hours of Sunday, November 18, 2018.
The building, an office complex with a 260 sitting capacity lecture auditorium attached to it, was a TETFund project constructed, completed and handed over by the immediate past Vice Chancellor of the University, Charity Angya.
Our correspondent gathered that the collapsed wing housing the lecture hall was yet to be put to use before it fell.
In a press statement, the Vice Chancellor of the University, Prof. Msugh Kembe said the University was saddened by the unfortunate incident.
He expressed gratitude to God that no life was lost except for the damage to some property in the wing of the building and the structural destruction of the complex.
According to him, the contract was awarded in 2013 by the immediate past VC when the university accessed a N3billion TETFund high-impact intervention for upgrading of facilities in public universities.
“The contract period for the building, whose cost was about N280 million, was two years. Consequently, in May, 2015, the university formally took possession of the property.”
Prof Kembe stated that like all projects involving TETFund, all due diligence for pre-selection leading to award of contracts was done before it was awarded.
He therefore appealed for restraints on comments regarding the incident as proper professional investigations are being carried out to unravel the cause of the collapse.
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“In the meantime, steps have been taken to restrict access into the remaining part of the building while an integrity test will also be carried out on all buildings and structures completed on the University campus recently, especially those funded through various interventions,” Prof. Kembe stated.
He assured the public that “professional bodies such as the Council for Registered Engineers of Nigeria (COREN), Nigerian Society of Engineers(NSE), Nigerian Institute of Quantity Surveyors(NIQS), as well as Academic Staff Union of Universities, (ASUU) BSU and students will be involved in this assignment and the outcome will be made public.”
The VC also reiterated that the University management was committed to ensure the incident do not re-occur again.
Reacting to the incident, the Head of Political Science Department, Dr. Terkura Tarnade thanked God no one was inside the building when it collapsed.
Ternade who lamented that he and other staff have been displaced from their offices by the incidence, described the building collapse as an additional burden to the infrastructural deficit the school has been battling with.
He also said the incident was a clear case of a poorly executed contract.
The Acting Coordinator, Directorate of Physical Planning at the University, Engr. Terhemba Agber said the cause of the collapse cannot be determined until due integrity test is carried out.
