BY EUCHARIA NZEABIA, ASABA
Tragedy struck Thursday in Asaba, the Delta state capital, as a building under construction at the multi-purpose sport complex of the Stephen Keshi Stadium, collapsed.
New National Star gathered that three persons are reportedly feared dead in the incident, while several other construction workers were injured and were hospitalized.
It was learnt among the persons who reportedly died were some construction workers on site.
Sources said that some journalists who were at the scene to get first hand information were molested.
The journalists were allegedly manhandled and their gadgets seized by some group of boys who were said to have gotten instructions from the chairman, Delta State Sports Commission, Tonobok Okowa.
Tonobok, who is a younger brother of the state governor, Dr Ifeanyi Okowa and Co-Chairman of the Local Organising Committee (LOC) for the festival tagged “Asaba 2022”, was said to have ordered that the journalists should be prevented from accessing the facility to know the level of damage caused.
Okowa was reported to have said “take them out of this place, journalists are not needed.”
A resident of Asaba at the scene said that but “when his boys were reluctant in carrying out the order, he shouted “are they still here, collect their gadgets and bundle them out of here.”
“The boys, in carrying out the order, beat the journalists, hitting them with sport gun and other objects before they were bundled out of the stadium on the orders”.
The two-storey sport complex under construction is being prepared for the 21st National Sports Festival (NSF) to be hosted at the stadium from November 28, this year.
Recall that the collapsed building was recently inspected by the Minister of Sports, Sunday Dare, who gave a pass mark, saying that the facilities were 80% ready for use.
However, some structural engineers expressed concerns over the speed at which the construction was going, doubting the integrity of the buildings under construction.
Meanwhile, Delta State Commissioner for Information Mr Charles Aniagwu said no loss of life was in the collapsed structure.
He said the accident was caused by misalignment of the crane by its operator which led to the heavy duty equipment crashing on the wall in one of the floors.
He revealed that only one person sustained injury during the accident .
“The accident was caused by the crane operator who couldn’t properly align the lift while trying to take up some very heavy duty equipment up the particular floor and it fell on the wall which led to a crash of a part of the wall,”he said .