Penalize those responsible for building collapse - Minister

Ms Amal Pepple, Minister of Housing

Minister of Lands, Housing and Urban Development, Ms Amal Pepple has once again charged the Council of Registered Builders of Nigeria, CORBON to go after those responsible for building collapse by ensuring on the issue of National Building Code, NBC.

Pepple gave the charge this afternoon when she inaugurated the 5^th board of the CORBON at the Federal Ministry of Lands, Housing and Urban Development, FMLHUD headquarters in Mabushi, Abuja.

The minister said, “I hope you are working on the building code. It is important to impose sanction on those who are responsible for collapse, they should be penalized. If there is no sanction, we are still going to be where we are.”

She also charged CORBON on the need to tackle unhealthy practices which she enumerated to include: lack of safety standards on building sites, use of inferior building materials, poor house quality and design, prevalence of unskilled artisans and non-professionals and lack of maintenance standards.

A newly-constructed building in Abuja

“These anomalies have lingered on for a considerable time because of the failure of professional and regulatory bodies to be committed to the achievement of the highest professional standards in the building industry,” she said.

Responding, the chairman of CORBON, Prof Kabir Bala said they are going to do everything within the ambit of the law to justify the confidence reposed in them on the appointment. He said the responsibilities given them are enormous and critical to the development of the economy. “The housing sector is critical to the transformation agenda of government.”

CORBON is established to regulate and control the practice of the building profession in all its aspects and ramifications in Nigeria.