The Cross River State Government has set up a committee to conduct a structural integrity and compliance audit of all telecommunication masts standing in the State, this is contained in a release signed by the Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice, Mr. Attah Ochinke.
Ochinke stated that the audit exercise is aimed at ensuring public safety and sustainable operations by the communications companies and that any mast for which no information is received from the operator shall be shut down immediately by the State Government and dismantled as an illegal structure, stressing that the cost of such dismantling shall be borne by the telecoms company operating the mast.
According to the release, membership of the committee include Attorney General, Cross River State, Chairman, Commissioner, Special Projects, member and Special Adviser, ICT Development, member.
Others are State Surveyor-General, member, Director Engineering Services, Ministry of Lands and Housing, member and Director, Department of Town Planning, menser/Secretary.
The constitution of this committee www.calitown.com was told is a direct consequence of the Wednesday, March 19, 2014 telecom mast tragedy in Odukpani LGA. The telecommunication mast belonging to service provider, Globacom, , collapsed on a residential building killing two people and causing severe injuries to others. Sources say “preliminary investigation by Government revealed that the mast was built on an abandoned refuse dump site that was clearly unsuitable to sustain such a structure. The investigation also revealed poor engineering and construction of the mast as factors that are clearly responsible for the fatal collapse of the mast”.
The State Government in the above circumstance, the release continued is determined to take concrete steps to safeguard the public from such incidents in future.
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