Jewish American Heritage Month

Posted By richards on February 27, 2015

TB Joshua

The contractor, who built the collapsed Synagogue Church of All Nations six-storey guest house, Mr. Akingbola Fatiregun, said on Thursday that the building was constructed following best practices.

Fatiregun also said that though the foundation of the building was meant for a six-storey building, it was constructed in such a way that it could have conveniently supported four additional floors.

The contractor, whose company, Hardrock Construction and Engineering Limited, executed the project, therefore, he said he was shocked to learn that the building collapsed.

Fatiregun appeared before the Lagos coroner, Magistrate O.A. Komolafe, probing the cause of death of about 116 persons, who perished in the collapsed building on September 12, 2014.

He said his company had existed for 11 years and had carried out major projects, not only in Nigeria but in Ghana, Niger Republic and the United States, adding that the SCOANs collapsed building was not due to structural defect.

Fatiregun said, On my visit to the site of the collapsed building, I observed that the pattern of the collapse was inconsistent with structural defect and suggested that the collapse could have been caused by other factors.

Structural failures have peculiar ways of falling but this one was unusual. From my observation, the building came down symmetrically as if it was guided. The fall appeared as if a method of bringing down a building was applied.

Buttressing his position, the contractor pointed out that during a joint post-collapse inspection of the debris by himself and the officials of the Ministry of Lands and Housing, he observed that the foundation of the building was still intact.

Taking the coroner through the construction process, the contractor said his company supplied the manpower and the equipment used while the SCOAN procured and supplied the building materials, such as sand, cement, quarry and reinforcement.

Continued here:

Synagogue: Structural defect not responsible for collapse, says contractor

Category: Synagogue
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