NIS to back law criminalizing building collapse

National president of the Nigerian Institute of Surveyors (NIS) Charles Alabo has said the institute will back any law making building collapse in the country a criminal offence.

He said this is to ensure that anybody embarking on a building project must use the correct materials and expertise.

He also said henceforth, the institute will monitor building constructions from foundation to completion to check faulty start.

Alabo, who spoke in Owerri at the investiture on five members of the body as fellows, said such checks would help in curbing the menace of frequent building collapse in the country.

“When a building collapses they would include surveyors; we can only test the loamy soil. We are not the geo-technical engineers, it does not concern us. Where I think we should come in is the monitoring aspect of it. We are going to urge the National Assembly to pass the law for building monitoring, this way it would be checked,” he said.

Alabo added that surveyors should be completely exonerated from the incidents because they were not responsible for materials used in the construction of the buildings.

However, he pointed out that if the monitoring bill is passed, it will become the responsibility of the surveyors to monitor the construction of building from its sand texture level to its completion.

The newly inaugurated fellows were Gertrude Njar, Dupe Olayinka, Solomon Olukotun, Babatunde Oluwasunkanmi and O. B. Ogunlami