Mr. Mukaila Sanusi, the spokesman for Lagos State Ministry of Physical Planning and Urban Development, has on Thursday entrusted the Lagos State Physical Planning and Building Control Appeals Committee to develop strategies to restore sanity in the construction sector.
Sanusi stated that the ministry’s commissioner, Mr. Omotayo Bamgbose-Martins, had given the advice at the opening of a two-day retreat organized by the Appeals Committee in Ikeja on Wednesday.
Bamgbose-Martins urged the committee to review the past, consider emerging realities and come up with new ideas for handling appeals. He criticized the general disregard of physical planning laws and regulations and urged the committee to change the stories.
Bamgbose-Martins said the committee had been inaugurated about three years ago by Gov. Babajide Sanwo-Olu to deliberate upon appeals from the public on physical planning and building control matters.
“Certainly, events in the built environment prior to and since the inception of the Committee have justified its establishment as the beacon of hope to the state and all stakeholders for re-instilling the much-needed sanity into the system,” he said.
He expressed optimism that the retreat would better position the committee to deliver on its mandate, while “praising efforts to retool members of the committee.”
Mr. Ayodele Adediran,, Chairman, Lagos State Physical Planning and Building Control Appeals Committee, had earlier said the committee was an important tool to achieve the THEMES Agenda of making Lagos a 21st Century economy.
Adediran said the committee, established more than three years ago, would profit greatly from a review of its performance in line with the legal instrument setting it up.
He said in spite of challenges, the Appeals Committee had successfully treated 28 out of 52 cases considered and would wax stronger after the retreat.
Ms. Titilayo Shitta-Bay, the Solicitor-General/Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Justice, hailed the establishment of the Appeals Committee.
She added that strengthening the Committee would help a lot in resolving physical planning and building control-related disputes as the world was moving towards alternative dispute resolution.
