A mother and her 14-year-old daughter have died after a three-storey building under construction collapsed at Anata Anaba, Okpoko, in Ogbaru Local Government Area of Anambra State.
The incident happened around 9:45 pm on Wednesday, October 8, 2026, trapping the woman and her daughter inside their apartment in a nearby bungalow.
An eyewitness said the building made a loud noise as its walls began to crack before the structure came down. Other people trapped in the rubble were rescued by emergency workers and taken to hospital.
“The woman and her daughter were in their apartment in a nearby bungalow when the three-storey building collapsed and trapped them. Before the building caved in, it made a loud noise as the walls started making cracking noises before falling one after the other,” an eyewitness said.
Residents claimed the waterlogged land was unsuitable for a three-storey building. They said the first engineer had advised the builder to stop at two floors, but another engineer was later hired to continue the project.
The woman’s son, Chimobi, said he was outside when the collapse occurred, while his mother and sister were in the bedroom.
Anambra Commissioner for Physical Planning and Urban Development, Chijioke Ojukwu, confirmed the incident on Thursday during a visit with Ogbaru One lawmaker Noble Igwe.
Ojukwu blamed the collapse on poor-quality materials and negligence, adding that authorities had issued a stop-work notice.
“The structure was an illegal building and we had ordered its demolition and the land is going to be forfeited to the state government. We are investigating other unapproved buildings under construction in the area,” he said.
