Expert Attributes Incessant Building Collapse To Lost Of Morals, Values

Published

4 years ago

March 11, 2022

Mr. Toyin Ayinde, National President, NITP

Mr Toyin Ayinde, National President, Nigerian Institute of Town Planners (NITP), says building collapse in Nigeria was as a result of a loss of morals, ethics and values on the part of the people.

Ayinde who stated this at a news conference in Bauchi on Friday, said that the menace was thriving because people were compromising or neglecting to do what is right.

“If construction is going on and an Engineer is not supervising, that is on us as a people but there is a system that is supposed to check it.

“So, if those who are supposed to check it are not doing that, something is wrong but one thing is paramount and that is, if we have any wrong doing, let’s punish the person who is wrong.

“That is the only way it can serve as a lesson to others in future. That’s where we are failing, we fail to punish evil and other people think they can do it and get away with it,” he said.

He explained that his advocacy visit to Bauchi State was to sensitise stakeholders, not only in Bauchi state but the whole country that there was the need for proper planning in the country.

The NITP President also said that farmers-pastoralists clashes in the country were not as a result of hatred of the parties involved towards each other, but as a result of scarce land

He said “like I said, it’s pointing to the fact that we have a limited resource and the only way you can manage a limited resource is to plan it.

“To plan resources like land, people have to sit down and find out what are the needs of farmers, herders and other people and how do we balance all of these,”

He added that governments at all levels must approach the issue with the use of technology to know what land we have and how to plan on them for everybody to be satisfied.

Places visited by the president included the Federal Polytechnic, Bauchi, Emir of Bauchi, Alhaji Rilwanu Suleiman, Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University (ATBU), Bauchi.

Others were; Abubakar Tatari Ali Polytechnic (ATAP), Bauchi, Bauchi Ministry of Land and Survey, among others.

Welcome Home, Israel Confirms Return Of 20 Hostages From Gaza

Published

10 hours ago

October 13, 2025

Editor

Israel said that the last 20 living hostages released by Hamas on Monday had arrived in the country.

“Welcome home,” the foreign ministry wrote in a series of posts on X, hailing the return of Matan Angrest, Gali Berman, Ziv Berman, Elkana Bohbot, Rom Braslavski, Nimrod Cohen, David Cunio, Ariel Cunio, Evyatar David, Guy Gilboa Dalal, Maxim Herkin, Eitan Horn, Segev Kalfon, Bar Kuperstein, Omri Miran, Eitan Mor, Yosef Haim Ohana, Alon Ohel, Avinatan Or and Matan Zangauker.

AFP

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20 Members Of Gang Blacklisted By US Escape Guatemala Prison

Published

13 hours ago

October 13, 2025

Editor

Twenty members of a gang designated a “foreign terrorist organisation” by the United States have escaped from detention in Guatemala, a prison chief said Sunday.

The members of the Barrio 18 gang “evaded security controls” at the Fraijanes II facility, prison director Ludin Godinez said at a news conference.

He received “an intelligence report” on Friday warning about the “possible escape” from the prison, which is southeast of the capital, Guatemala City.

Godinez said they were investigating possible acts of corruption.

Washington last month blacklisted Barrio 18, an El Salvador-based gang which has a reputation for violence and extortion, as part of its crackdown on drug trafficking.

The US embassy in Guatemala condemned the prison escape as “utterly unacceptable.”

“The United States designated members of this heinous group as the terrorists they are and will hold accountable anyone who has provided, provides, or decides to provide material support to these fugitives or other gang members,” the embassy said on X.

It called on the Guatemalan government to “act immediately and vigorously to recapture these terrorists.”

According to Interior Minister Francisco Jimenez, there are about 12,000 gang members and collaborators in Guatemala, while another 3,000 are in prison.

The country’s homicide rate has increased from 16.1 per 100,000 inhabitants in 2024 to 17.65 this year, more than double the world average, according to the Centre for National Economic Research.

According to the Salvadoran government, the gangs Barrio 18 and Mara Salvatrucha, better known as MS-13, are responsible for the deaths of about 200,000 people over three decades.

The two gangs once controlled an estimated 80 percent of El Salvador, which had one of the highest homicide rates in the world.

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South Africa Bus Crash Kills 40 Including Malawi, Zimbabwe Nationals

Published

13 hours ago

October 13, 2025

Editor

At least 40 people, including nationals of Malawi and Zimbabwe, were killed when a passenger bus rolled down an embankment in South Africa, a provincial transport minister said Monday.

The bus travelling to Zimbabwe crashed around 90 kilometres (55 miles) from the border on Sunday after the driver apparently lost control, Limpopo province transport minister Violet Mathye said.

“They are still working on the scene, but 40 bodies have already been confirmed to date,” Mathye told the Newzroom Afrika channel. The dead included a 10-month-old girl, she said.

Thirty-eight people were in hospital and rescuers were searching for other victims, she told eNCA media.

The bus was travelling from the southern city of Gqeberha, around 1,500 kilometres away, and its passengers included Malawians and Zimbabweans who were working in South Africa. The crash may have been caused by driver fatigue or a mechanical fault, the minister said.

South Africa has a sophisticated and busy road network with a high rate of road deaths, blamed mostly on speeding, reckless driving and unroadworthy vehicles.

AFP