Firm working on collapsed building withdrew its service last year because of irregularities

Prowess Engineering Limited, the company that began the construction of the Gerrard terrace building which collapsed in Ikoyi, Lagos, withdrew from the project in February 2020.

A letter written by Prowess Engineering Limited to Fourscore Heights Limited shows that the engineering company withdrew from the Gerrard Terraces project in February 2020, on the grounds that it no longer shared the same vision with its client.

Prowess Engineering Limited said it could guarantee the integrity of the first two buildings it constructed for Fourscore Heights Limited, but it couldn’t guarantee the integrity of the third building from anything above the fourth floor.

The third building is what ended up collapsing on Monday, November 1.

The letter Prowess Engineering Limited wrote withdrawing its service reads: “This letter is to formally inform you of the (withdrawal) of our structural consultancy service from the above named project. We arrived at this decision due to the fact that we no longer share the same vision with you as our client in terms of how the project is being executed.

“We can guarantee the integrity of the first two buildings and also work done up to the fourth floor of the third building supervised by us provided specifications have been met in terms of the required concrete strength. This we do not have control over as we do not have the concrete cube test results of each stage of the building till date. Also, note that we are not taking responsibility for any other construction errors that may have occurred overtime on the project.

“Furthermore, we request that our company’s name and logo be removed from the project board and also kindly notify all necessary approving authorities of our withdrawal from the project.

“We regret this decision and the lost opportunity to do business together. We look forward to future cooperation in other projects.”