20 completed and uncompleted buildings in Banana Island has been marked for demolition on the orders of the Lagos State Governor, Babajide Sanwo -Olu.
Also read; ‘Pardon me’: President Buhari pleads with ‘hurt’ Nigerians
The governor on Saturday led a delegation of government officials for an on-the-spot assessment of a seven-storey building under construction which collapsed recently in the Banana Island area.
The order given after the tour was confirmed b the Chief Press Secretary to the governor, Gboyega Akosile in a post on his Twitter Handle.
Update: Some completed and uncompleted buildings are marked for removal in Banana Island today following Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu's instruction after the inspection tour. pic.twitter.com/uNa5gEXgcT
— Gboyega Akosile (@gboyegaakosile) April 22, 2023
Speaking during the visit to the site of the collapsed building on First Avenue in Banana Island, the governor accused some agencies of the federal government of being culpable in the incidents of building collapse on the highbrow Island.
He went further to described the way and manner officials of the National Inland Waterways Authority (NIWA), the promoters of the estate, issued permission to sand fill the Lagos Lagoon without regard to the topography of the area as reckless.
“We are at the back of the land that is abutting. You can see that the original line for Banana Island is not even here. It is way in front and you can see that there are several extensions granted by both the Federal Ministry of Works and Housing and NIWA. These are the two federal agencies that have been culpable for those extensions. They have done these extensions without our knowledge.
“We have responsibility for building approval. All of the four buildings at the back never got our approval. This is an illegality that is real and that is why we are going around the properties.
“The excuse that they don’t have access is not acceptable. It is total recklessness. All the developers and the culpable officers will be sanctioned.
“But what we are doing now is – we have set up an external committee who are given two weeks to independently ascertain what has gone wrong here and they should finish the work towards the end of next week. This will further strengthen our hands to be able to come up with a robust work plan that we can enforce going forward.
“It is heartbreaking each time we have to go through this and it shows how irresponsible both the developers, some of our citizens that just want to make quick money, and of course our officers, who are not alive to their responsibility.
“We have had to change staff here and there so that we can bring forward robust and very strong monitoring offices, but we are still short of it, I must say. We need to do what we have to do to keep the lives of our citizens safe at all times, ” Sanwo-Olu explained.
The governor accused some officials of the Lagos State Building Control Agency (LASBCA) of corruption, stressing that they would be held responsible for the recent collapse of a seven-story building on the island recently.
The governor went on further to state that no construction should have been carried out on the land.
Inspection of other building projects to ascertain their level of compliance highlighted several shocking buildings projects; a multi-storey building was constructed under high-tension power lines, while some had earlier been demolished by the state government had been reconstructed without the government’s permission.
At the end of the inspection tour, the governor ordered the demolition of 20 completed and uncompleted buildings on the island.
Of the 20 buildings, 3 are from the commercial section of the island, while 17 are from the residential section.
The governor was accompanied by Commissioner for Physical Planning and Urban Development, Omotayo Bamgbose-Martins, Special Adviser on Works, Adeyoye Aramide, and the Commissioner for Information and Strategy, Mr. Gbenga Omotoso, among others.
On April 14, Investogist reported that all development plans on Banana Island has been suspended by the Lagos state government after the collapse of a seven-storey building under construction on First Avenue, to allow for a comprehensive audit by the officials of the Lagos State Building Control Agency (LASBCA).
Nnamdi Maduakor is a Writer, Investor and Entrepreneur
