“The roof of the court hall suddenly collapsed 20 minutes after the Judge adjourned sitting. We just heard a sound and everybody including lawyers, litigants and staff of the court fled to safety. Nobody knew where the sound came from until some people discovered it was the roof of the hall which has been dilapidated for a long time. We thanked God that nobody was injured. Who knows what would have happened if the court was still in session because the roof fell on the area where the Judge’s seat is located.
Pointblanknews.com gathered that the building was renovated three years ago but had gone bad due to alleged shoddy job done by the contractors who handled it.
It was further gathered that the roof has been leaking whenever it rains and flood covers the court hall.
Three years ago, the state government had given a facelift to the High Court complex including the internal road, but most of the buildings look decrepit.
Effort to get the reaction of the Chief Judge of Abia State, Justice Onuoha Arisa Ogwe, was not successful. The Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice, Chief Uche Ihediwa, who is one of the newly appointed SANs, was also said to be away in Abuja, for his swearing in ceremony.
However , a senior officer of the Ministry of Justice said the Chief Judge has been briefed about the incident.
