Date: 2012-04-13

Thirty seven construction workers in Ilorin, Kwara State capital, yesterday escaped death by the whiskers when the two storey building they were working on suddenly collapsed at about 12:00 noon. The incident, which happened along Coca-Cola Road, opposite the popular Ariya Hotel, however, left two of the workers injured.

Daily Sun gathered that the incident happened when the workers were constructing the deck-in of the second floor of the building said to be owned by an Ilorin-based legal practitioner.
The two victims of the incident were identified as Dayo and Fatai, who were said to be concrete mixer and machine operator respectively. They were said to have been treated and discharged at a private hospital along the same Coca-Cola Road.

One of the workers, who spoke with journalists argued that the collapse was not due to poor quality materials and drew the attention of the journalists to the remnants of the materials being used including cement and granite on the site to buttress his argument.

He said: "We just saw the building coming down suddenly and the dust enveloped everyone around. What saved some of us was that not many people were under the building. There were only two people working on top of the building."
Daily Sun visited the Ministry of Housing and Urban Development at about 4:35 pm yesterday to obtain comments on the incident, the Commissioner, Mr. Bode Olayemi was said not to be available.

The permanent secretary in the ministry, who was contacted on behalf of journalists by the press secretary of the ministry was quoted to have said he was not the right person to speak on the issue.