The entire faithful of Assumpta Catholic Church Umuode, Aba, should count themselves blessed as well as have reasons to thank and glorify God for His divine mercy and absolute protection.  This followed the collapse of their church building on February 17, 2014.  God held the building from collapsing until the morning Mass was over our reporter said.

Observers say the church building caved in due to structural defects. The faithful who gathered round the church to sympathize and assess the extent of damage, glorified God that there was no casualty.

Mr. Vincent Onwuneme, Vice-Chairman for the Parish Council, told Rex, Aba diocesan newspaper that the incident occurred around 10.45am on that monday.  “We were all here for the morning Mass, and after the Mass everybody went away.  I was with the parish priest inspecting the construction of the ceiling.  At a point, we observed that the ceiling had a problem.  Part of it was falling and at last we saw that the main roof had just collapsed and before 11am, the whole thing was just on the ground”.

On what may have caused the collapse, Mr. Onwuneme said it is due to the poor work of the contractor.

On the next line of action, he said they have to start afresh, “There is no two ways about it, because we cannot do these things without starting afresh.  It will affect the whole building and that is why we are now appealing to people to come and help us”.

Rex reported that there were many people at the time the building caved in like those for marriage course and the priest who was directing the people working on the ceiling.

Asked to comment on the construction work during his tenure, Chief  Colbert Enwerem (KSJI), said when he was Chairman of the Out-station, the parish priest who is at St. Mary’s awarded the contract.  What he did was just to “look at it”.  He recalled that during that time there were some complaints but the contractor would tell them that they did not award any contract to him; that what they were there for was to observe.  “So we have to keep our mouth shut”, he said.

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