By Senior South Africa based Civil Engineer, Taka Sande
– Comment on TB Joshua claims that a plane which flew close to the church hostel an hour before the collapse which killed more than 70 people last week, is responsible for the tragedy –
 
“I saw the video from a CCTV camera showing the flying plane before the collapse. The Plane circled the building for the third and last time at 11:44am and the building collapsed at 12:45pm, an hour after the plane had left.
There is no connection whatsoever between the collapsing of the building and the plane. Judging from the way the building crumbled down, it is due to some kind of structural failure from the bottom.
There was no explosion and no visible external forces involved. Hence what caused the collapse happen from inside and came from within the building itself. It is said that two floors had been added to the original building.
Hence the first area to be investigated is whether there was adequate structural design done to cater for the additional floors. From three floors upwards the foundation has to be redesigned and the vertical support redesigned in the form of columns.
I would say the collapse happened due to poor workmanship, and in most cases the owner of the building may not be aware that the structural integrity of the building was compromised. The one who is responsible can be identified after investigations. In general, building failures are caused by inadequate design by the structural engineers, a case of incompetency. They can be caused by cost cutting measures by the contractor or by the owners who compromise the safety of the building in the name of cutting costs. And lastly it can be due to using inferior and substandard or unaccredited materials.
In this case the contract or the manufacturers are responsible. I hope the Nigerian government or its engineering statutory body will quickly set up a team to investigate this incident so that the responsible culprits can be brought to book. This will restore the integrity of their building industry.”
ABOUT  – Taka Sande:  Mr Sande is a professional Civil Engineer who has built numerous high rise buildings in Zimbabwe and South Africa for a period stretching since 1996 to date. Every one of those buildings still stands to this date.