Residents of Gwarinpa District in the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja on Saturday urged the government to conduct structural integrity tests on all commercial buildings under construction along 6th Avenue.

They said the government needs to ascertain the structural integrity of the existing buildings to forestall the sad incident that happened on February 2, 2023.

The residents blamed corruption by government officials and deviation from the masterplan of the FCT for the recent building collapse in the neighbourhood.

About three persons were confirmed dead and 21 others rescued when a three-storey building under construction along 6th Avenue in the Gwarinpa area of Abuja, collapsed around 11.00 am on February 2, 2023.

The residents, under the aegis of ADKAN Estate Residents Association, maintained that the building collapse was not a natural disaster but a man-made one.

The chairman of the association, Kabir Akanbi, said the collapse of the building represented a culmination of the protracted trend of illegally converting buildings and green areas purposely designed as residences and public utilities for commercial purposes.

According to him, prior to the building collapse, residents had observed an increase in commercial buildings around the estate, contrary to the original design set in the Abuja Model City II plan, when the estate was first conceived.

He added that residents have had to contend with traffic congestion and increased insecurity due to the consequences of the illegal conversions.

Akanbi said, “The collapse is the ugly and extreme manifestation of the ravenous appetite for commercialisation that has taken hold within our estate in recent years and which, apparently, has neither respect for legal boundaries nor peaceable habitation.”

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