Site workers, residents escape death as three buildings collapse in Abia

A one-storey building under construction has collapsed on Finbars Road, Umuahia, causing panic in the area.

The building collapsed in the early hours of Friday following a torrential downpour, though no lives were lost.

The incident occurred about two months after officials of the Umuahia Capital Development Authority (UCDA) declared the building illegal and warned that it was under threat of imminent collapse.

It was gathered that site workers were not on duty when the building collapsed, miraculously escaping what could have been a tragic incident.

The General Manager of UCDA, Kingsley Agomoh, who led officials of the agency to seal off the collapsed building, confirmed that the owner and developer of the site had been warned two months earlier to discontinue work because of identified structural defects.

Also, an abandoned three-storey building at Road 2 Junction, Low Cost Housing Estate, Umuahia, collapsed on Friday.

The latest incident comes one year after another three-storey building in the same compound at the Low Cost Housing Estate collapsed in July 2025.

Similarly, a two-storey building under construction collapsed in Umugbalu, Ikwuano Local Government Area of the state, allegedly due to structural defects caused by the use of substandard materials. However, no casualties were recorded.

Speaking to journalists in Umuahia after visiting the collapsed buildings, the General Manager of the Umuahia Capital Development Authority (UCDA), Kingsley Agomoh, advised property owners and developers to always obtain development approvals and submit their building plans for proper soil and structural investigations before erecting structures.