The Building Collapse Prevention Guild in Ogun State says it has embarked on inspection of construction sites across the state.

The body said unethical practices by professionals would result in building collapse, adding that thorough assessment of construction activities would prevent it.

The BCPG, which comprises registered engineers, architects, builders, surveyors, valuers, town planners and quantity surveyors, visited some construction sites in Abeokuta to observe and make necessary recommendations to the state government.

Addressing journalists during the visit, the state Chairman of BCPG, Olusegun Sogbetun, said the organisation was on the mission to educate the public as well as developers on how to construct buildings in line with professional ethics.

He said, “We’ve been around since 2013 to carry out this assignment, but we discovered that people are not really feeling our impact unless we have the collaboration with the government to achieve the enforcement, and the government doesn’t have enough manpower to carry out this assignment.

“So, our guild works together with the arms of the government in charge of building provision management, that is the Ministry of Urban and Physical Planning, which issues out approval for developers to build their houses.”

Sogbetun added that erring professionals would be reported to the relevant agencies.

He said, “It is difficult to go round and see if these developers are really obeying the rules and regulations that come along with the approval in terms of setbacks, compliance with the production of the building generally and to confirm that they have qualified experts in the field to execute the job.

“It is true that qualified experts design the project, but that is one thing at one part. The major aspect is to ensure that what is written on the paper is being really adhered to so that at the end of the day, one would have a very safe and sound structure that will not fail in standing a good test of time and that will be able to serve the purpose for which it was constructed.

“We’ve been on this since 2013, some of us just came out and felt that there should be an organisation like this to move around and sensitise the people.”