One dead, four rescued as uncompleted hotel building collapses in Enugu

One person is feared dead and four others were rescued after an uncompleted four-storey building under construction as a hotel collapsed at Independence Layout in Enugu on Sunday. The building came down in the early hours of the morning, trapping workers and security personnel who were reportedly sleeping at the site.

Four of the trapped persons were rescued and rushed to hospital for treatment, while rescue workers later recovered another person from the rubble. The Executive Chairman of the Enugu Capital Territory Development Agency (ECTDA), Uche Anya, said six people were believed to have slept in the uncompleted property, and that one was not around when the building came down.

Anya said the property was originally approved in 2021, but that an inspection found serious integrity issues and non-compliance with the approval. He said he personally issued a stop-work order and the site had been sealed for the past six months over the violations. The representative of the owner, who is said to live abroad, was handed to the police to assist with the investigation, he added.

The Director of the Enugu State Fire Service, Okwudiri Oha, commended the response of the Red Cross, the State Emergency Management Agency (SEMA), the ECTDA, Enugu State Ambulance Services, the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), the police and the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps. He said bulldozers and excavators helped rescuers reach the four survivors, two of whom sustained minor injuries.

The Executive Secretary of SEMA, Chinasa Mbah, said rescue workers would excavate the entire wreckage to ensure no survivor or body was left behind. NEMA's information officer in Enugu, Ezeani Nnanyelugo, said the earlier sealing of the site by the state government may have prevented a greater tragedy.