The Lagos State Government has turned down a recommendation by the Ikoyi building collapse tribunal to sponsor the consultant who raised the alarm over professional ineptitude that characterised the construction project.
A member of the tribunal, Godfrey Chukwurah, who made the disclosure to our correspondent in an exclusive interview, said the tribunal’s recommendation came in light of the discovery of the significant observations made by the consultant (whose name he did not disclose).
According to him, the consultant, who was the representative of Prowess Engineering Limited, the consulting firm of Fourscore Heights Limited, had noted that the columns on the ground floor lacked the capacity to carry the high-rise building.
He said, “There was a young man who was working for Prowess. He had written remarks that all the columns on the ground floor should be demolished. He was working with the consultant engineer. He’s the one who was representing the engineer on site.
“They did not inform them (the consultants) when they were getting ready to cast the concrete for the columns. They eventually cast concrete for the columns, but I think it did not turn out well. So, the guy wrote, and we saw the notes in Osibona’s house because we had to go and do some search there. We saw that note there. The tribunal recommended that the guy’s education be furthered abroad. The state government rejected that recommendation.”
Earlier reported that the tribunal, upon conclusion of its findings, submitted its recommendations to the Lagos State Government.
The state government, having set up a committee to review the submissions of the tribunal, accepted 26 of the recommendations while rejecting two other proposals.
Speaking further, Chukwurah stated that due to the consultant’s continuous criticism of the breach of ethical standards in the construction process, Fourscore Heights Limited prevailed on the consulting company to remove him from the project site.
“Based on what he wrote and other discrepancies that he was always reporting, the client (Fourscore Heights Limited) asked his company to withdraw him from the site, saying that they did not want to have him there again. Unfortunately, his company withdrew him from the site.”
Meanwhile, Prowess Engineering Limited, via an earlier correspondence, had terminated its relationship with the real estate development company before the ill-fated collapse of the high-rise building.
The letter, which surfaced in the wake of the building collapse read, “This letter is to formally inform you of the withdrawal of our structural consultancy service from the above-named project. We arrived at this decision due to the fact that we no longer share the same vision with you as our client in terms of how the project is being executed,” the letter stated.
“We can guarantee the integrity of the first two buildings and also works done up to the fourth floor of the third building supervised by us provided specifications have been met in terms of the required concrete strength. This, we do not have control over, as we do not have the concrete cube test results for each stage of the building till date.
“Also, kindly note that we are not taking responsibility for any other construction errors that may have occurred overtime on the project. Furthermore, we request that our company’s name and logo be removed from the project board and also kindly notify all necessary approving authorities of our withdrawal from the project.
“We regret this decision and the lost opportunity to do business together. We look forward to future cooperation in other projects.”
When contacted, the Lagos Commissioner for Information, Gbenga Omotoso, said the state government had several students enjoying scholarships abroad and that certain criteria had to be met in order to enjoy such a privilege.
He said, “Lagos State has thousands of people overseas who are on paid scholarships. We do not know if this fell into the criteria of people who should enjoy such privilege. The government had the right to approve or reject the recommendation.”