By PAMELA EBOH, Awka

Some students of Federal Polytechnic, Oko who were residents of the collapsed three-storey building known as Elite Five Star Lodge have accused the landlord and caretaker of the building of negligence.

Some of the students that spoke through Whatsapp voice messages cited by journalists said that the tale signs were all over the building as it was noticeably not looking healthy and showed signs it may cave in, but the owners ignored it

The students said, "They were more interested in fleecing students with one bill or the other.

“When you tell them about the problem in the building, they will ignore you. In fact, most lodges in Oko and Amaokpala are like that and we want to call on the authorities to look into it

“Surprisingly, these same people who ignore the faults in the building are so high handed in treating students especially when it has to do with collection of levies and their house rent.

“They will lock you out of your house if you owed rent, and they will never open it no matter how much you plead, until you pay them.

“Some students will be locked out of their houses because of rent and they will go and be squatting with friends for days. They won’t even let you collect your books during exam period so that you can study. That is how wicked they are.”

In one of the voice notes, a female student said: “The authorities concerned should arrest the landlord and his caretaker. They know the building was going to collapse and they were more interested in getting money.

“I once showed the caretaker a fault in the house, and because of that, he stopped talking to me for months. They are evil and they should be arrested for wasting people’s lives.

“What will people whose children died do now? Students who escaped but lost their property and vital documents, how will they be repaid? The landlord and caretaker need to be arrested.”

Though there is yet to be any official press release of casualty figures made public, sources said one dead body has been discovered under the rubbles so far.

A video seen by journalists and friends of the deceased lady were seem weeping uncontrollably.

Recall that the state Police Public Relations Officer, PPRO, SP Tochukwu Ikenga had earlier in a press release said that rescue operations commenced immediately it got wind of the incident at around 11pm on Sunday and ran all through to Monday morning.

He however assured that most residents of the building had been rescued and that efforts were still on to find more persons trapped underneath the rubble