Judicial Panel Grills Three Rivers Commissioners over Collapsed Building

The Judicial Commission of Inquiry set up by Rivers State
Governor, Chief Nyesom Wike, to investigate the collapse of a
seven-storey building under construction in Port Harcourt,
yesterday started sitting and questioned three serving
commissioners in the state.

The three commissioners questioned were Commissioners for Urban
Development and Physical Planning, Dr. Reason Onya; Health,
Professor Princewill Chike; and Special Duties, Dr. John Bazia.

This came also as the Judicial Commission of Inquiry to
investigate the affairs of the state-owned Integrated Medical
Industries Limited also started sitting with a witness stating how
the directors of the company frittered away more than N35.7 billion
fortunes of the firm.

Testifying before the Commission on the collapsed building which
had claimed about 17 lives, the Commissioner for Urban Development
and Physical Planning, Onya said the ministry revalidated the 2014
approved plan for the collapsed building following the
disappearance of the file of the building plan.

He said: “We couldn’t get the file of the approved plan for the
building in the Ministry. So we had to revalidate the approved plan
in 2018 following requests from the developer. We suspect that the
movement of the Ministry from Moscow Road to State Secretariat
could have led to the disappearance of the file.”

The commissioner, who insists that he had stepped aside to allow
for proper investigation into the cause of the collapsed building,
said the plan of the building was duly registered in the Ministry
of Urban Development and Physical Planning.

Testifying before the Commission also, the Commissioner for
Health, Professor Princewill Chike, said a total of 17 persons died
in the collapsed building, pointing out that out of the number,
only eight corpses could be identified by their relatives.

Chike stated that 12 of the corpses were deposited at the Ashes
To Ashes Mortuary of the Rivers State University Teaching Hospital,
Port Harcourt, while three others were deposited at the morgue of
the University of Port Harcourt Teaching Hospital (UPTH).

He said three corpses were deposited at Kpaima, a privately
owned morgue in Port Harcourt, adding that one of the corpses at
Kpaima Mortuary, has been retrieved and buried by his
relatives.

The Commissioner stated that a total of 31 persons, including a
female were rescued alive from the collapsed building located along
Woji Road, New GRA, Port Harcourt, saying that almost all the
victims had been discharged from the hospitals.

Earlier, Chairman of the Judicial Commission of Inquiry, Hon.
Justice Adolphus Enebeli, said part of the terms given to the
Commission is to unravel the remote and immediate causes of the
collapse of the building.

Meanwhile at the Judicial Commission of Inquiry to investigate
the affairs of Integrated Medical Industries (IMI) Limited, headed
by Justice Douye Green, a witness, Dr. Ikedife Uba, also recounted
how the management of the company frittered away the N35.7 billion
fortunes of the company.

Uba, a professional economist, said at the inaugural sitting of
the commission directors of the company were still disbursing funds
from the company years after their tenures expired.

He said the state government had invested about N35.7 million in
the company started by the Dr. Peter Odili administration but said
the rot was uncovered when the Project Director/Chief Executive
Officer (CEO) of the company, Amenya Wokoma, was arrested by
security agents in June while trying to sell assets of the
company.

He also revealed that as at December, 2015, after the principal
and loan of loans from Diamond Bank had been repaid, the company
received N857 million from the bank but thwe money was shared by
the directors whose tenure had elapsewd as they were no more
officials of the state government.

He said that as at June when the bubble burst in the company,
some staff were owed more than 13 months salaries even though the
company was selling syringes and other assets of the company.

Hearings continue in both commissions.

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