Prowess Engineering: Owner who died in collapsed 21 storey building didn’t listen to warning

LAGOS, Nigeria – The  21 storey building which collapsed at 44BCD Gerard Road Ikoyi, could have been avoided,  if Mr. Femi Osibona, the owner of  Forescore Heights Limited had listened to earlier warning by Prowess Engineering Limited, one of the engineering  consultants who was involved abinitio  in the construction of the building.

In a notice of intention to withdraw services by Managing Director of Prowess Engineering Limited, Mr. Muritala Olawale, addressed to Mr. Femi Osibona , the structural engineer warned that it is withdrawing its structural services from the proposed Gerard Terraces For Forscore Limited.

“We arrived at this decision  due to the fact that we 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 4^th 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 responsibility  for any other construction errors that may have occurred over time on the project.

“We regret this decision  and the lost opportunity  to do business  together. We look forward to future  cooperation  in other projects”, he  warned.

Ironically,  Mr. Femi Osibona was one of  the four people pulled out dead from the building, while 6 others were pulled out  alive with injuries.