>
Details have emerged on what might be responsible for the collapse of the 21-storey building under construction in Ikoyi area of Lagos State on Monday afternoon.
The structural engineer contracted for the project had in February 2020 withdrew its services citing differences on the vision for the project, according to a document sighted by Newspeakonline.
In a letter dated, February 20, 2020, the structural engineer formally notified the owners of the project of its decision to discontinue the service being rendered.
The letter signed by Muritala Olawale, the Managing Director of Prowess Engineering Limited, the structural engineer handling the project at the time, and addressed to Femi Osibona of Fourscore Heights Limited, owners of the project, read: “This letter is to formally inform you of the withdrawal of our structural consultancy service from the above named project. We arrived at this decision due to the fact that we no longer share same vision with you as our client in terms of how the project is being executed.
“We can guarantee the integrity of the first two buildings and also works done up to the fourth floor of the third building supervised by us provided specifications have been met in terms of the required concrete strength. This we do not have control over as we do not have the concrete cube test results for each stage of the building till date, Also, kindly note that we are not taking responsibilities for any other construction errors that may have occurred over time on the project.
“Furthermore, we request that our company’s name and logo be removed from the project board and also
“Kindly notify all necessary approving authorities of our withdrawal from the project.
“We regret this decision and the lost opportunity to do business together. We look forward to future cooperation in other projects.”
It is, however, not clear if the owners of the project contracted another structure engineer before the collapse of the building on Monday afternoon.