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No less than four siblings, on Friday evening, died at Umeh Agric quarters, behind No. 4 Mgbemena road, Coal camp, Enugu, when heavy rainfall forced an illegal retaining fence to collapse.
Residents of the affected building said that the incident occurred at about 4pm when the fence yielded and collapsed on top of the building situated in a valley behind the poorly constructed fence.
One of the residents who survived the incident, Jennifer Okoye narrated to Vanguard that she survived because she was at work when the incident happened but that her room was badly hit by the collapse.
She gave the age bracket of the deceased siblings as between 8 to 15 years, disclosing that their petty trader mother was not at home when the incident took place.
“One of the boys is still in the hospital and their mother too who is yet to be informed that her children are dead. The name of their mother is Modester Okereke and their father had died. Even a remnant body part of one of the victims is still trapped in the rubble behind my room,” Okoye disclosed.
In another development, the Enugu Capital Territory Development Authority, ECTDA, has sealed a property development close to Onitsha quarters, close to New Market, where the developer encroached in a waterway which resulted in flooding of residences in the quarters following the Friday heavy rainfall.
ECTDA has subsequently sealed the residences where the siblings died, same as the property development that caused the flood as well as other illegal developments in Independence Layout, Enugu.
Chairman of ECTDA, Hon Uche Anya who visited the affected developments, Saturday morning, said that the affected bungalow where the four siblings died was originally approved for animal husbandry but was converted for residence.
While lamenting that the collapsed building was not healthy for human residence, the ECTDA chairman revealed that the structure has 44 rooms.
“As soon as we got the intelligence, we rushed to the place. Four children died in the episode. It was danger waiting to happen. The construction was irresponsible. The place should never have been occupied by human beings. In fact, go there and see.
“Apparently, they claimed that they were doing animal husbandry and poultry there but it turned out that there are 44 rooms that human beings are occupying and there must have been a population of over 200 people there.
“The fence line was totally unacceptable, nobody does that, and unfortunately, the people we lost in that tragedy are innocent children and it is very painful”, Anya added.
The ECTDA chairman said that the agency would continue to sensitise the public on the need to live a more conducive environment to avoid future occurrence of the unfortunate incident.
According to him, the Compliance unit of the agency under his leadership would ensure that structures erected by landlords and contractors adhere strictly to the approval plan.
