Dunamis Pastor’s Death: This May Have Caused Collapse Of Church Building In Benue

In a tragic incident, a Dunamis Church located in Mission Ward, North Bank, Makurdi, Benue State, collapsed in the early hours of Tuesday, claiming the life of one of the church’s pastors, Ezekiel Ahmed, and injuring others.

The church building collapsed at around 2 a.m. while a group of five pastors were gathered for a late-night prayer session.

While Makurdi has a history of flood-related incidents, the North Bank area, where the church stands, is typically unaffected due to its elevated position. This raised questions about what could have led to the collapse of the building which had also not deteriorated.

Photographs taken at the scene depicted a church structure with its front and rear portions still standing erect, while the sides had completely crumbled, leaving a pile of debris on the ground.

A resident of Makurdi, Sam Adzegeh, had told THE WHISTLER “The building was bound to fall because it was built on the waterway.”

However, THE WHISTLER‘s examination of the location’s geographic data reveals that the site of the collapse has an elevation of 129 meters above sea level, significantly higher than the nearby River Benue watershed, which stood at an altitude of 80 meters.

Speaking on the probable cause of the collapse, Munir Balogun, a civil engineer, shared his perspective in a conversation with THE WHISTLER.

According to him, the collapse might be attributed to a structural defect in the building’s roof, rather than a failure in its main framework.

“It appears that the roofing structure was the weak link, leading to this tragic incident,” Balogun told THE WHISTLER. “The likely scenario is that the roof’s support pillars or rafters succumbed to external forces, possibly induced by thunderstorms, resulting in the roof’s collapse. If it were the main building structure that failed, we would be investigating issues with the foundation.”

The Dunamis Church founder, Dr. Paul Enenche, during a visit to the scene, said the ministry always follows diligent construction practices and scrutinizes building procedures.

“As a ministry we employ due diligence in our buildings and this we have done in several things we have done,” Enenche stated.

“We believe that going forward, we will look into more details, the procedures and everything including technical details, and we trust God this will be forestalled in the future,” he said.