Nigeria trains forensic engineering investigators as study logs 111 building collapses and 321 deaths

Nigeria has moved to strengthen its capacity to investigate engineering failures, launching a programme to train certified forensic engineering failure investigators following a study that recorded 111 validated building-collapse incidents and 321 deaths over a decade.

The Certified Forensic Engineering Failure Investigator (CEFFI) programme was inaugurated in Abuja through a partnership involving the Chartered Institute of Forensics and Certified Fraud Investigators of Nigeria (CIFCFIN), the Council for the Regulation of Engineering in Nigeria (COREN) and the Nigerian Building and Road Research Institute (NBRRI).

The initiative follows a 2026 study published in the University of Abuja Journal of Engineering and Technology, which examined 111 validated building-collapse cases recorded between 2015 and 2025. The researchers reported 321 deaths and 344 injuries, identifying structural defects, poor construction practices and inferior materials among the leading identifiable triggers, while noting that many cases did not have clearly established causes.

Speaking during the induction of the first group of CEFFI professionals, CIFCFIN President and Chairman of its Governing Council, Iliyasu Gashinbaki, said the scale of engineering-related losses showed the need for more systematic investigations. He said forensic engineering should help investigators establish what happened, preserve relevant technical evidence and determine whether negligence, malpractice, fraud or deliberate breaches of safety requirements contributed to a failure, and urged regulators, contractors, project owners, professional organisations and law-enforcement authorities to ensure that investigations do not stop once damaged structures are repaired, demolished or abandoned.

COREN President Sadiq Abubakar said the programme would combine conventional engineering knowledge with forensic investigation techniques, describing the training as an important step towards addressing gaps in the way engineering failures are investigated. He called for a larger pool of professionally trained investigators and said the approach should not be limited to buildings but should also cover sectors including mining, oil and gas, telecommunications, transportation, aviation and aerospace. COREN has previously indicated plans to develop a register of engineers trained in failure analysis and forensic investigation.

Building collapse is a long-standing problem in Nigeria. One widely cited chronology records the collapse of a multi-storey building under construction at Mokola in Ibadan in October 1974, in which 27 people were reported killed, while research published over the years has repeatedly pointed to problems involving construction materials, design, workmanship, supervision, foundations, maintenance and compliance with approved building requirements. NBRRI's published reports document investigations into several major failures, and the institute has noted difficulties investigators sometimes face in gaining access to collapse sites and obtaining relevant information from contractors or authorities.

The stated goal of the CEFFI initiative is to strengthen the post-failure process by creating professionals equipped to examine engineering evidence and document the causes of failure. Whether it produces a measurable reduction in collapses will depend not only on training investigators, but on whether their findings are acted upon by regulators, project owners, professional bodies and other enforcement institutions.