Tragedy In Okpoko: Landlady, 14 Year Old Daughter Killed As 3 Storey Building Collapses
By Faith Onyemuche |IchieTimes
A night of horror in Okpoko, Ogbaru Local Government Area of Anambra State, has claimed the lives of a mother and her 14 year old daughter after a three storey building under construction collapsed on them.
The victims, identified as Mrs. Happiness Ugoagu and her daughter, Miss Chikaima Ugoagu, were reportedly inside their bedroom when the structure came crashing down at about 9:45 p.m. in the Anata Anaba area of Okpoko.
They reportedly had no chance to escape.
The tragedy has triggered fresh concerns over building safety in the area, with residents alleging that warnings about the construction had been repeatedly ignored.
Residents told ABS that the land was waterlogged and that the engineer who initially handled the project had advised that construction should stop at two storeys because of the condition of the ground.
They alleged that the advice was ignored and another engineer was later brought in to continue the construction to three storeys.
The son of the deceased, Chimobi Ugoagu, said three members of the family were in the apartment when the building collapsed.
According to him, he was outside while his siblings were in the sitting room, but his mother and Chikaima were in the bedroom directly beneath the collapsing structure.
Chimobi said he had personally warned the builder about the danger and joined other residents in calling for the project to be stopped.
But their warnings, he lamented, came to nothing.
Visiting the scene, the Anambra State Commissioner for Physical Planning and Urban Development, Chijioke Ojukwu, described the incident as unfortunate.
The Commissioner alleged that substandard materials were used in the construction and disclosed that a stop work notice had earlier been issued on the building.
He described the structure as illegal and ordered its demolition, alongside other unapproved buildings under construction in the area.
For the Ugoagu family, what began as an ordinary night ended in unimaginable tragedy, with a mother and her teenage daughter losing their lives beneath a building residents say they had warned could become a disaster.
