IN Lagos State, buildings have been collapsing like a pack of cards over the past one year. The frequency of collapse over the last year became a permanent feature so much so that hardly did a month go by without a building collapsing, with deaths recorded in most of the tragedies.
The latest of the collapse happened on Sunday, September 4, 2022, when a seven-storey building at Sandfield, Lekki, crashed, killing six persons. The next day, the state Commissioner for Physical Planning and Urban Development, Dr Idris Salako, under whose watch many buildings had collapsed, resigned. No reason was given for his resignation, which the state governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, promptly accepted.

Sanwo-Olu on Wednesday, September 7, 2022, deployed the former Commissioner for Special Duties, Engineer Tayo Bamgbose-Martin, to the Physical Planning ministry to replace Salako.

Timeline of building collapse in Lagos under Salako’s watch

Residents of the state were jolted on November 1, 2021 when a 21-storey building under construction in Ikoyi came down, killing 40 persons, including the owner and developer, Olufemi Osibona, popularly known as Femi Fourscore; and a friend of his who was on his way to the Murtala Muhammed International Airport to travel out of the country but Osibona had persuaded to stop over at the building site.

Also victims were Osibona’s personal assistant, construction workers and a food vendor.

The building was part of three towers that Osibona’s company, Fourscore Homes, was building on the vast Ikoyi site. Some of the units were priced as high as $1.2 million each.

Hours after the building crashed, a letter surfaced online revealing that the consultant to the Fourscore Homes project, Prowess Engineering Limited, had withdrawn its structural consultancy job on it citing the structure as unsafe and vulnerable to collapse.

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A video also went viral showing how officials of the Lagos State Building Control Agency (LSBCA) sealed the building at a point after they marked it structurally defective. But, somehow, the contractors restarted work on the project, increasing the floors till it collapsed.

The Foreshore tragedy signposted what would seem a lack of will by government’s officials in taking firm action on structurally defective buildings in the state, as subsequent instances would show.

Reported cases tracked by The ICIR revealed that, at least, eight major buildings had collapsed in Lagos this year alone, while 24 persons died from the incidents.

In February 2022, a three-storey building collapsed at No. 16, Akanbi Crescent, Sabo, in the Yaba area of Lagos, trapping five persons. Four persons died in that incident.

The state government blamed the developer for resuming construction on the site without authorisation after it had been sealed on two occasions.

There was talk after a review meeting on the incident that the government would prosecute Gboyega Bello, the developer of the building.

READ MORE HERE: https://www.icirnigeria.org/timeline-eight-buildings-collapsed-under-ex-lagos-commissioners-watch/

Nawao

Hmmm