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Tag: Lagos State Building Control Agency

  • Residents of Iponri buildings get two weeks to vacate distressed building

    Residents of Iponri buildings get two weeks to vacate distressed building

    …Elliot pleads for time

    The Lagos State Building Control Agency (LASBCA) has identified over 15 distressed buildings at Iponri Estate in Surulere that need to be demolished due to their unsafe conditions. 

    The General Manager of LASBCA, Arc. Gbolahan Oki stated that the occupants have been issued multiple notices and warnings to vacate the area to prevent potential loss of life and property. 

    Oki emphasised that evacuating residents from these distressed buildings is in the best interest of public safety. 

    He cautioned that the deteriorating condition of some of these buildings poses a significant danger, as their structural integrity has been compromised and they could collapse at any moment.

    Read Also: Tinubu’s govt will guarantee better future, says Akpabio

    He reiterated the agency’s commitment to enforcing building safety standards and urged residents to comply with evacuation orders to avoid any casualties.

    Oki also assured the people that LASBCA will continue to monitor buildings across the state to identify other structures that may pose similar risks to avert dangers.

    The lawmaker representing Surulere 1, Desmond Elliot, and Special Adviser to the Governor on Housing, Barakat Bakare, implored the residents not to compromise standards but to abide by the building codes and regulations.

    Elliot praised Elliot for its dedication to ensuring sanity in three built environments and implored residents to vacate the area to safeguard lives and properties.

  • Building collapse: Lagos orders occupants of marked buildings to vacate immediately

    Occupants of marked distressed buildings in Lagos State have been ordered to immediately vacate them pending the arrival of the demolition team of Lagos State Building Control Agency (LASBCA).

    Also, relief and resettlement centres have been opened to accommodate those affected at Igando and Agbowa.

    Commissioner for Physical Planning and Urban Development, Prince Rotimi Ogunleye made the appeal in a statement by Nwonah Olubukonla, Asst. Director, Public Affairs, Ministry of Physical Planning and Urban Development on Monday.

    The directive was sequel to the collapse of a distressed three-storey building located on 50, Kakawa Street, Campos, Lagos Island on Monday without any casualty.

    Read Also: Building collapse: NAPPS urges proprietors to build schools themselves

    Ogunleye said: “The building in question had been identified as distressed by the officers of the LASBCA and all the necessary statutory notices had been duly served. It was one of the defective structures marked for removal by the agency.

    “Fortunately, occupants had been evacuated before the incidents occurred. Immediately, the Lagos State Rescue Team and LASBCA were alerted and they moved to site promptly to check all adjoining buildings so as to evacuate the occupants to avoid any further hazards.”

    Already 25 buildings have been removed by LASBCA as the Government has stepped up measures to rid the State of distressed buildings so as to prevent loss of lives and property due to sudden collapse in the State.

  • Sanwo-Olu condemns cases of Lagos collapsed buildings

    The Lagos State Governor-Elect, Babajide Sanwo-Olu yesterday described the recent collapsed building in the state as unfortunate.

    But he praised the swift actions taken by Governor Akinwunmi Ambode to address the problem.

    The Governor-Elect spoke with State House correspondents after meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari alongside the Deputy Governor-elect, Femi Hafsat.

    He said: “It’s an unfortunate incident. Incidentally, when I was in government before, I used to be the Vice Chairman of the building collapse committee. It was something that happened about 8-10 years ago, which was what led to the creation of an agency which we called Lagos State Building Control Agency (LASBCA)  at that time, which was meant to begin to identify structures way ahead before such incidences occur.

    “But it’s an unfortunate thing, extremely very unfortunate and it is not something that we will like to see it happening again. So the current government has started very quickly, ensuring that they test the integrity of a whole lot of properties we have there.

    Read also: ‘Sanwo-Olu will not disappoint Lagosians’

    “You know Lagos State is part of the old colony of Lagos and it is not unexpected that you see houses that are over a century old and in those numbers so we need to be real and know that Lagos truly really needs regeneration especially Lagos Island.

    “That was one of the things we promised during the campaign trail so it’s to have a conversation around the families and see the kind of re-development that is important as is being done in a lot of other big cities like Lagos,” he said

    According to him, he was in the State House alongside his Deputy-Elect, Femi Hamzat, to pay courtesy on the President and congratulate him for winning the Presidential election.

    On what he is offering the people of Lagos when he assumes office, Sanwo-Olu said he has seen the challenges ahead and will come up with solutions without delay.

    “We are very excited that we have seen all the challenges ahead of us and we will certainly be bringing about solutions that will very quickly solve all of our various challenges in Lagos and we know that with a mega city of our status, it comes with a lot of challenges but we are lucky that we have been part of it before now so we are excited that we are bringing solutions to problems that we identified on the campaign trail.

    “We will very quickly bring about positive development that would improve the quality of lives and ease all of the challenges that we currently see in Lagos,” he said

  • Building collapse: Lagos begins demolition of over 150 marked houses

    The Lagos State Building Control Agency (LABSCA) yesterday began the demolition of defective buildings on the Lagos Island.

    Men of the agency’s task force pulled down a three-storey building on 60A, Freeman Street, Epetedo area.

    The demolition exercise is not unconnected with the Wednesday incident around the same area, where a four-storey building collapsed, killing over 10 people and leaving scores injured.

    LABSCA official, Mr. Omotayo Fakolujo, told The Nation that the property owner had been served several notices dating back to 2013 before the demolition.

    He said that over 150 houses on the Lagos Island have been identified for demolition.

    “On the Lagos Island, we have over 150 houses marked for demolition. We have removed over 30 in the last one year and we are going to be removing them in phase. What we are trying to do is to remove occupants from all these structures that have been marked so that no life is lost in Lagos. For now on Lagos Island alone, we have a clear court case approval of over 80 cases and 80 structures that are ready for removal and we will do it in phases systematically from today (yesterday) so that life will be comfortable for Lagosisns. We will remove three today on Lagos Island. And for the houses that are still occupied, we are going to evict the occupants of the structures because their lives are more important to us.

    “On our mode of demolishing, these structures are so close by; we have to remove them systematically, manually so that we can ensure that there is safety. The exercise is not prompted by the recent collapsed building. Before this incident, we had removed over 10 structures within Ajeromi Ifemodun and Apapa within the Ijora axis,” he said.

    Contrary to previous experiences, residents and passers-by on Freeman Street, Epetedo, Lagos, praised the officials for the demolition exercise.

  • Updated: Over 150 buildings marked for demolition in Lagos Island

    The Lagos state building control agency (LABSCA) on Friday began the demolition of defective buildings on the Lagos Island.

    M en of the agency’s task force pulled down a three storey building on 60A Freeman Street, Epetedo area.

    The demolition exercise is not unconnected with the Wednesday incident around the same area, where a four storey building collapsed, killing over 18 pupils and leaving scores injured.

    LABSCA official, Mr. Omotayo Fakolujo, told The Nation that the property owner had been served several notices dating back to 2013 before the demolition.

    He said that over 150 houses on the Lagos Island have been identified for demolition.

    “On the Lagos Island we have over 150 houses marked for demolition. We have removed over 30 in the last one year and we are going to be removing them in phase.

     

    “What we are trying to do is to remove occupants from all these structures that have been marked so that no life is lost in Lagos.

    “For now on Lagos Island alone, we have a clear court case approval of over 80 cases and 80 structures that are ready for removal and we will do it in phases systematically from today (Friday) so that life will be comfortable for Lagosians.

    “We will remove three today on Lagos Island. And for the houses that are still occupied, we are going to evict the occupants of the structures because their life is more prominent to us.”

    Noting that the agency is monitoring to ensure that new structures are built aright, he noted that in the past three years there is no new structure that has gone down in the state.

    “This is because materials testing is doing due diligence into those structures and the state building control through its certification department is also building with them.

    “But we need to do foundation proven for over 70 present to the old structures that are over 25 years old to ensure that they are still structurally sound.

    “On Massey Street, we have about four or five houses left that we are trying to remove.

    “There is still litigation that we must avoid rehabilitee that might arise from litigation if we remove forcefully without clarifying that.

    “On our mode of demolishing, these structures are so close by; we have to remove them systematically, manually so that we can ensure that there is safety.

    “The exercise is not prompted by the recent collapsed building, before this incident we have removed over 10 structures within Ajeromi Ifemodun and Apapa within the Ijora axis.

    “We have to go through exposures of reinforcement, physible craft on it and scientifically, most of these buildings must be subjected to test through Lagos state material testing and its agency and that is how we identify them, so that we are sure that no one is malicious about bringing down the structures,” he said.

    Contrary to previous experiences, residents and passer-by on Freeman Street Epetedo, Lagos, praised the officials for the demolition exercise.

    A resident, who identified himself as Tajudeen, told The Nation that it is a welcome development.

    He said government has shown with this exercise that it has the interest of the people at heart.

    Tajudeen revealed that a lot of houses on the island were built poorly and by unqualified masons.

    “We are happy; everything should be brought to ground zero. We don’t want any loss of lives again,” he said.

    On the house demolished on 47 Smith Street, one of the owners of the property, Mrs.  Oshodi Glover, said the developer given the job to renovate the house did nothing.

    “What is in the book is that he will renovate our house and hand it over to us. We were told to do test and we did.

    “We have been on the case for about seven years now, the case has continuously been adjourned, we have done the test and we are going to court again next week.

    “It has been a while that we have been given notice, we told them we have been going to court for about three years and they said there is nothing they could do but we should tell judge to end our case quickly.

    “They have written to us that we should renovate the house, the person we gave the job to did nothing, the house was deteriorating.

    “He did not pay electricity bills, we had no result to show if he paid for land use and we took the case to court, he is a developer and his name is Awe, the house owner is Thomas.

    “He was meant to renovate the house and give it back to us. The outcome of the test was that they will demolish the house.

    “We are not against the house being demolished by government but the developer we gave the job to did nothing to the house.

    “Most of these developers will say the house is overdue and that they will collect the house that they cannot renovate it, the developer use this house for 30 years and did nothing to it,” she said

    Some of the residents who were happy about the demolition exercises urged government to always check the cement iron rods and other materials used in building the house.

    Many of them said the house built by developers is bad.

    “We are happy that houses are being demolished in the area because if the houses should collapse lives will be lost.

    “The way houses are built in Lagos is not good. It is not fair that houses collapse and kill our children, we will be giving birth and our children will just die like that.

    “People should not build three or four storey building and there should be space between houses.

    “You will see houses built in three months; we love the demolition, it should continue so that houses will no longer collapse and kill innocent people especially children.

    “A house collapsed less than two years ago, also on Lagos Island and many people died, we are angry over the continuous building collapse, the demolition should continue.”

  • LAGS seals 33 buildings in Eti-Osa

    No fewer than 33 buildings were sealed for various offences by the Lagos State physical Planning Permit Authority (LASPPPA) and the Lagos State Building Control Agency (LASBCA).

    The offences ranged from lack of planning or building permit, contravention of approved building plans, among others. The operation was undertaken

    Before the seal-up action, the agencies said the  affected buildings had been served various notices, including stop work notice, and calls for the developers and property owners to regularise their papers but the notices were ignored.

    The General Manager, LASPPPA, Funmi Osifuye, said the joint action with LASBCA is to sensitise the public about the security and safety of buildings and for people to build right and in accordance with the law. “What we are after is to let everyone comply with the town planning rules and regulations, as it concerns planning permit of buildings and also the safety of that building,” he said.

    Osifuye further explained that the authority had earlier given the defaulters 30 days moratorium for them to do the right thing about their building but there was no compliance, hence the sealing up exercise. According to the LASPPPA boss, the government is focused and knows what it is doing on the issue of safety, especially in the aspect of building collapse, which the state government really want to put a stop to.

    In similar vein, the General Manager, LASBCA, Lekan Sodeinde, regrets that a lot of developments are not conforming to the laws. He was saddened that unless people are given a little nudge  or forced, they do not like abiding by the laid down laws on building.

    Shodeinde revealed that the state governor, Akinwunmi Ambode, recently announced an amnesty period for defaulters to regularise their building permits. “If you have built your property overtime and you have not built right- either you don’t have a permit or you are not conforming or whatever, this period is available for you to come and regularise your documents,” he urged.

    He further disclosed that as an incentive, during this amnesty period, no penalties will be paid. He lamented that the grace period, which began last March, has witnessed low response from developers and property owners. “People’s failure to abide by laid down building regulations is the reason for this joint action exercise by LASPPPA and LASBCA,” he submitted.

  • Ambode inaugurates Lagos State Safety Arena for emergencies

    Ambode inaugurates Lagos State Safety Arena for emergencies

    Gov. Akinwunmi Ambode of Lagos State on Tuesday inaugurated the state’s Safety Arena at Bolade in Oshodi area to facilitate quick response to emergencies.

    Speaking at the inauguration, Ambode said the Safety Arena comprised of all the departments and agencies responsible for safety and emergency management under one roof.

    “By providing the safety arena, we are not only institutionalising inter-agency cooperation and collaboration but we are moving our emergency response mechanism to a new level with a more robust approach to emergency rescue through improved coordination and faster response time.

    “With the movement of these agencies into the safety arena, we will experience better synergy among them and a significant improvement in the response time to most safety and emergency issues,’’ Ambode said.

    The complex has the Fire Service Department; Environmental Health Department; Lagos State Ambulance Services ( LASMBUS ); State Environmental Health Monitoring Unit ( SEHMU ).

    Other agencies in the complex include, Lagos State Building Control Agency ( LASBCA ); Safety Commission; Lagos State Emergency Management Agency ( LASEMA ); Lagos State Neighbourhood Safety Corps ( LNSC ), and the Nigerian Legion.

    Ambode restated his commitment to create institutions that would continue to serve the people satisfactorily always.

    He charged the management and staff of the environment ministry and the various agencies to continue working on the improvement, renewal and sustenance of the existing synergy among the various agencies and players saddled with the responsibility of managing safety and emergencies.

    Read also: Ambode to inaugurate LASEMA Ikorodu Road unit

    “Members of the public must not be treated inhumanly at any time your duties are being performed. We will not tolerate any professional misconduct or behaviour from our officers in this arena,’’ he said.

    The governor, however, urged residents to partner with the government in areas of effective and functional emergency response as it could not do it alone.

    “It is not the responsibility of only the government but of every individual in the state.

    “We therefore, recognise the need to continue to advocate and promote community participation in emergency management.

    “All citizens must continue to conduct themselves responsibly for us to serve you better,’’ he said.

    Earlier, the Commissioner for Special Duties and Intergovernmental Relations, Mr Oluseye Oladejo, said that the complex was strategically located at Oshodi to satisfy the yearnings of the people and to further ensure continued improvement on response time.

    Oladejo said the second phase of the safety arena project had been awarded to accommodate the Lagos Command of the Nigerian Civil Defence Corps, Vehicle Inspection Service, Vehicle Maintenance Workshop and a Fuel Dump.

    NAN

  • VC blames incessant building collapse on education sector

    VC blames incessant building collapse on education sector

    The Vice Chancellor of the University of Lagos (Unilag), Prof. Rahamon Bello, has blamed increasing spate of building collapse in the country on the education sector.

    Bello made the observation on Tuesday at the 2017 Annual Lecture/Awards and Induction ceremony of the Lagos Branch of Nigerian Society of Engineers (NSE).

    The event held in Unilag, Akoka, Yaba.

    The vice chancellor was represented by the university’s Director of Works and Physical Planning, Dr Adelere Adeniran.

    He called for increased funding of vocational training schools to develop middle level manpower which, he said, was lacking in the construction industry.

    He said that quackery was in the increase because Shylock businessmen have taken over the role of vocational institutions and are churning out half-baked artisans.

    Bello noted that artisans without requisite skills were not allowed to practise in developed countries, regretting that the reverse had been the case in Nigeria where they paraded themselves as engineers.

    He also said that inadequate government attention on the development of vocational schools had made some students with insufficient intelligence to acquire university education at all cost.

    “The implication is that those who would have made good craftsmen parade themselves as engineers,’’ he said.

    Bello urged resuscitation of vocational training to provide skilled middle-level manpower needed for the engineering profession to have a complete chain of professionals.

    In his lecture, the Acting General-Manager, Lagos State Building Control Agency, Mr Oladotun Lasoju, urged Lagos residents to partner with the state government to fish out quacks and report illegal activities causing building collapse.

    He urged engineers to monitor their projects from design to completion to ensure that developers would not cut corners to compromise quality.

    Lasoju said that regulatory agencies in the state were working in synergy to ensure adequate regulation and law enforcement to stop building collapse and ensure proper planning of the environment.

    “The Lagos State Government is leaving no stone unturned toward ensuring that an end is put to this problem.

    “That is why, as individuals and groups, we need to partner with the government,” he said.

    The Chairman, Lagos Branch, Nigerian Institute of Building, Mrs Adenike Said, urged building professionals to collaborate to end building collapse.

    Said called on the NSE to carry artisans along in seminars and trainings in order to enlighten them on professional standards to stem building collapse.

    The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that Bello, Adeniran and Gov. Akinwunmi Ambode of Lagos received the Lagos NSE Awards for Excellence for contributions to the growth of engineering.

  • Lagos stops Lekki garden’s construction

    Lagos stops Lekki garden’s construction

    The Lagos State Government has expressed its condolences over the death of construction site workers who lost their lives on Tuesday as a result of the collapse of a five-storey building under construction on Kushenla Road, Ikate Elegushi, Lekki.

    This is contained in a statement issued on Wednesday and signed by the Commissioner for Information and Strategy, Mr. Steve Ayorinde.

    According to the Lagos State Government, based on preliminary reports and investigation, it was discovered that the collapsed building was served contravention notice for exceeding the approved floors and thereafter sealed by the Lagos State Building Control Agency.

    Similarly, the Commissioner said that the state discovered that in a brazen act of defiance and impunity, the owners of the building, Messrs Lekki Worldwide Estate Limited, the promoters of the Lekki Gardens, criminally unsealed the property and continued building beyond the approved floors until the unfortunate incident of Tuesday which has led to loss of lives.

    He further added that arising from the Lagos State Executive Council meeting decision on Wednesday, the State Government will no longer tolerate the action of unscrupulous owners and builders who challenge its supervisory control, thereby endangering the lives of Lagosians.

    The State Government has consequently directed the suspension of work at the site and ordered the Lagos State Police Command to cordon it off as it is now a crime scene.

    The government also directed further integrity tests be carried out on every other construction project which has or is currently being handled by Messrs Lekki Worldwide Estate Limited in the interest of public safety.

    Furthermore, the release quoted the Lagos State Governor, Mr. Akinwunmi Ambode as saying that all directors of Lekki Worldwide Estate Limited are strongly advised to submit themselves to the Lagos State Commissioner of Police within the next twenty four hours in their own interest or face immediate arrest.

    The statement also commended the timely response and remarkable intervention by the combined men of the Lagos State Emergency Authority (LASEMA), the Lagos State Fire Service, Lagos State Ambulance Service (LASAMBUS), Red Cross, National Emergency Agency (NEMA), Lagos State Building Control Agency and the Rapid Response Squad (RRS).

    The Lagos State Government also warned that it will no longer be business as usual stating that any developer either on existing or new building projects who fails to comply with building and construction regulations or attempts to subvert the law will henceforth face criminal prosecution.