COREN ready prosecute quacks

President of the Council for the Regulation of Engineering in Nigeria (COREN), Engr. Ali Rabiu, said the council is ready to prosecute quacks that are often responsible for building collapse and other structural infractions.

The president, who spoke with journalists at the weekend, said the amended COREN Act 2018 mandates the council to investigate not only licensed engineers, but also non-engineers who undertake engineering projects.

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He said the council has conducted eight investigations with six completed while two are pending. He said most building collapse cases across the country have been found to be the handiwork of quacks.

“I want to assure you that out many of the investigations we have conducted recently of building collapse, we have not found any trained engineers wanting. So mostly, it is quacks and that is why we moved to amend our act to give us powers to prosecute these quacks. And now we have that amendment accepted by the government so we can prosecute quacks,” he said.

He, however, decried that such investigations take a lot of time to conclude.

“The act says you have to get an assessor from the Chief Justice of the Federation to guide us on the points of law while trying these people in the tribunal. So we are waiting for the Chief Justice to send us an assessor and then we will constitute the tribunal and go ahead with trial,” he added.