ABUJA, Nigeria — At least five people have died and ten others have been pulled out alive after a three-storey building under construction collapsed in Nigeria’s capital, Abuja.
The disaster occurred on Saturday morning in the bustling Durumi 3 area, close to Gudu Market and the Gaduwa Estate district.
Heavy machinery and rescue teams are working under difficult conditions to cut through the twisted iron rods and pancaked concrete layers, amid fears that several more construction workers remain trapped beneath the rubble.
Emergency Response Activated
In an official statement confirming the death toll, Lere Olayinka, the Senior Special Assistant on Public Communications to the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Minister, Nyesom Wike, said a comprehensive rescue operation remains underway.
First responders, including the Federal Fire Service, health workers, security agencies, and local volunteers, are continuing to comb through the debris. Anxious residents have gathered around the perimeter of the cordoned-off site, waiting for news of missing relatives.
The FCT Mandate Secretary for Health, Adedolapo Fasawe, visited the scene to coordinate the medical emergency teams. She announced that Minister Wike had directed that all casualties rescued from the site be given immediate, free medical treatment at government facilities.
A Chronic Structural Crisis
Building collapses are a frequent and tragic occurrence in Nigeria’s rapidly growing urban centres.
While investigations into this latest incident are just beginning, structural engineers routinely blame the country’s high rate of structural failures on a combination of:
- Substandard Materials: The use of poor-quality concrete mixtures and weak iron reinforcements to cut costs.
- Corrupt Oversight: Developers bypassing strict zoning laws and building codes without structural permits.
- Unqualified Labour: A heavy reliance on informal, untrained site workers to manage complex multi-storey projects.
Government officials have vowed to launch a full investigation into the owners of the property and the contractors managing the site once the immediate search-and-rescue phase is concluded.
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