Former Plateau State Governor, Senator Joshua Chibi Dariye, has condoled the families of students of Saint Academy School, Busa Buji, Jos North Local Government Area, who lost their children, and the injured.
According to a statement in Jos, Senator Dariye described the situation as sad, untimely and avoidable, urging the authorities to get to the root cause of the unfortunate incident and sanction those found culpable.
He expressed deep concern over the spate of building collapses across the country and appealed to the government to take necessary actions to end these needless incidents which have claimed many innocent lives.
The former governor commended the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), Plateau State Emergency Management Agency (SEMA), The Red Cross, citizens as well as security agencies for their prompt response in rescuing the victims trapped in the rubble.
Senator Dariye called on regulatory agencies such as the Nigerian Institution of Architecture (NIA), Nigerian Society of Engineers (NSE), Council for the Regulation of Engineers in Nigeria (COREN) and the Jos Metropolitan Development Board (JMDB) to synergise and ensure that buildings are properly supervised across the state.
The former governor lamented that the inability of the regulatory agencies to supervise buildings has given rise to this menace and advised them to rise up to their responsibility of weeding out quacks who are infiltrating the building profession.
“The issue boils down to supervision. Lack of proper supervision is the reason why we keep experiencing building collapse across the country and until we return to the basics, we cannot get it right”, Senator Dariye observed.
The APC Chieftain joined the Plateau State government to appeal to citizens to donate blood in designated hospitals in the Jos Metropolis so as to save the lives of the injured.
He called on the state government to ensure that the owner of the building and the regulatory agencies that supervised it are appropriately sanctioned to serve as a deterrent to others.
READ ALSO FROM NIGERIAN TRIBUNE
