LASBCA Demolished Ebutte Metta House For Safety — Oki

The General Manager, Lagos State Building Control Agency (LASBCA), Mr Oki Gbolahan, has said emergency demolition of a distressed building located at No. 3, Oko Baba Street, Ebute Metta, was to save lives.

Oki, in a statement made available to journalists by LABSCA spokesman, Mr Gbadeyan Abdulraheem on Wednesday, described “the building as a disaster in waiting.”

He said the demolition carried out on Tuesday during the LABSCA monitoring and enforcement exercise became necessary as the government could not compromise the safety of lives and property.

According to the General Manager, the demolition of the building is a proactive move by the agency to avert avoidable loss of lives.

Oki said several negotiations with the developer in charge of the building failed because “the developer remained unyielding and unwilling to comply with instructions from the agency.

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“The inability of the developer to reach a compromise with the agency after series of engagements with him necessitated the demolition of the distressed building to save the lives of inhabitant as well as school children within the building.”

He said the developer was served the necessary statutory notices and was told to present the results of the structural stability test of the building within a specified period before the rainy season.

“The developer was told to make appropriate renovations but failed to carry out the repairs. Information reached us that the building was not stable, so the agency had to come in and insisted that the needful be done.

“There was an appalling sight of a part of the building that housed little school children, who were immediately dispersed and sent home in order to save the school children from a possible building collapse,” he said.

The General Manager reaffirmed the state government’s commitment to the safety of lives and security of all Lagos residents, which according to him, informed the demolition of the distressed building.

Oki said some other buildings had already been marked for demolition within that area, adding that enforcement by the agency would reach other parts of the state before the rainy season.

He said this was part of strategies to reduce incidences of building collapse during the period.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that LASBCA and its sister agency the Lagos State Physical Planning Permit Authority (LASPPPA) began massive enforcement towards taming building collapse and illegal developments on Tuesday.