A one-storey building under renovation has collapsed along Audu Bako Way in Kano.
The incident, which happened on Wednesday morning, has been attributed to the use of inferior building materials.
Although there was no casualty, properties worth millions of naira were said to have been destroyed in the incident.
Auwal Rabi’u, a security man with one of the adjacent buildings, said he escaped being crushed by the collapsed building by the whiskers.
“They told me to remove my shed which is attached to the building. They have been working for about four days now. They want to extend and renovate the place and put glasses across.
“This morning (Wednesday), I saw that they stopped work, ran a few meters away from the building and stood confused and the next thing, the building collapsed,” he said.
A woman, who gave her name simply as Blessing, said she works in the beauty salon upstairs, adding that “when I came in the morning I saw them cutting the wall with a machine, I went up to clean the floor and I heard them hitting the wall.”
She said she rushed down and saw them hitting the wall. After about 10 minutes, my madam entered and she called me to the other side. Then we heard the building collapse.
“We were not told of any renovation work. Although there were no casualties, most of our equipment was destroyed.”
Malam Rufa’i, who heads the workers’ team, said when they started work in the morning, they “began to experience some noise in the building.
“We were not the ones who built it. As such, we stopped the work and stayed back from the building. A few moments later the building collapsed.”
