Test ordered on distressed 1004 estate building
Gbolahan Owodunni Oki, the General Manager of the Lagos State Building Control Agency (LASBCA), has instructed owners/developers of buildings under construction that have surpassed the approved building plan to return to the original plan approved and granted to them by the state government.
The LASBCA said that the affected buildings have exceeded the number of floors approved by the authorities without proper procedures and maintained that they should revert to the original plan.
Mr. Olusoji Olopa LASBCA’s Director of Enforcement conveyed Oki’s order during the Agency’s routine monitoring and enforcement exercise executed at Eti-Osa and Surulere areas of the State recently.
The LASBCA boss said, “This new directive is a decision taken by LASBCA towards ensuring the prevention of building collapse and the attendant consequences that comes with it, such as the loss of lives and properties.
“The monitoring and enforcement exercises carried out today by the agency was to ensure that buildings under constructions that were earlier sealed were not broken by owners/developers without doing the needful. It is also to ensure that the buildings that have exceeded the number of floors approved by the government without proper procedures are reverted to the original plan.’’
Oki emphasized the need for other relevant agencies and professional bodies in the building industry to come on board and assist the government to stem the tides of building collapse in the State with their professional inputs.
He pointed out that it is no longer business as usual, advising the building public to value life and do the right thing at all times.
He said, “Life is irreplaceable, let us change our attitude positively to save lives and ensure that this menace called building collapse does not continue any longer.’’
During monitoring and enforcement exercises by LASBCA, 7 other buildings under construction were sealed at the Eti-Osa and Surulere axis of the State for various building violations from construction without approval/authorisation to breaking Government seals amongst others.
The agency also ordered the management of the 1004 Estate, Victoria Island to carry out a Non-Destructive Test to establish the structural stability of one of the blocks in the estate which was learnt to be visibly distressed by the Agency’s officers while on routine monitoring of the area.
The Lagos State Government has in recent times embarked on the demolition and sealing off of properties across the state for breaching the state’s physical planning laws and lack of approval from the relevant authorities.
