5 injured as church collapses in Kogi

No fewer than five people were injured on Thursday when an ongoing 10,000-seater cathedral project of the Immaculate Catholic Cathedral Church in Lokoja, the Kogi State capital, collapsed.

The Cathedral Administrator, Rev. Anthony Akande, said the accident occurred when the workers were on break. He said he was thankful to God that no live was lost.

He explained that eight engineers were supervising the project. He added that a team of visiting engineers from Abuja, last week, gave a pass mark to the work already carried out.

He said the collapse of the building was rather unfortunate and surprising.

The Kogi State Deputy Governor, Mr. Yomi Awoniyi, who was at the site of the accident, ordered that further work on the project be stopped pending the submission of report by the committee set up by government to establish the cause of the collapse.

He stated that the collapse of the building was unfortunate.

According to him, the building collapse could have been caused by several factors, which, he said, would be unraveled at the end of the committee report.

Awoniyi urged the committee, which is made up of experts from the state government and who will work with the resident engineers, to speed up investigation.

He stated that the submission of their report will assist in preventing recurrence.

He also sympathised with the injured victims and the church.

Credit: Success Nwogu/Punch