Five injured as church collapses in Kogi

No fewer than five people were injured on Thursday when an ongoing 10,000 sitting capacity cathedral project of the Immaculate Catholic Cathedral Church in Lokoja, the Kogi State capital, collapsed.

The Cathedral Administrator, Rev. Anthony Akande, said the accident happened when the workers were on a break.

He said he was thankful to God that no life was lost.

He explained that eight engineers were supervising the project, adding that a team of visiting engineers of the church from Abuja last week gave a pass mark to the work already done.

He said the collapse of the building was unfortunate and surprising.

The Kogi State deputy Governor, Mr. Yomi Awoniyi, who was at the site of the incident, ordered that further work on the project be stopped pending the submission of a report by the committee set up by the government to establish the immediate cause of the collapse.

He added that the collapse of the building was unfortunate.

He said, “The collapse could have been caused by several factors, which would be unraveled at the end of the committee’s probe.”

Awoniyi urged the committee , which was made up of experts from the state government, and who would work with the residents to speed up investigation.

He stated that the submission of the report would assist in preventing a recurrence.

He also sympathised with the injured victims and the church.