Seeks stakeholders’ collaboration to end menace

Lagos State government yesterday said that the land on which a collapsed 21-storey building in Ikoyi was built would be taken over by the state government.

The Commissioner for Physical Planning and Urban Development, Dr. Idris Salako, said the decision was in line with the physical planning law.

According to him, though the state government has not taken a decision on what it would use the land for, whenever it wants to put it into use, it is likely to be for something that will help to remember those who died in the building.

Salako, who spoke at a briefing during the handing over of the complex to the contractor engaged by the government to demolish the adjoining structures, said the demolition would be done in the interest of the public, including the residents.

Also, Commissioner for Special Duties and Inter-governmental Affairs, Tayo Bamgbose-Martins, said the state government had no business with those who have paid to own apartments in the building that collapsed, the reason the state government would not consider compensating them.

His Information and Strategy counterpart, Gbenga Omotoso, said the buildings would be pulled down based on the recommendations of the panel set up by the government on buildings that failed integrity tests.

In his remarks, Managing Director of Edge of Designs, Theophilus Lewo, said the deconstruction would take about 90 days but might be extended due to weather, rain and the safety of the workers.

He said his company would not be demolishing the buildings but deconstructing them using a controlled method. MEANWHILE, Lagos State Governor, Mr. Babajide Sanwo-Olu, has urged stakeholders in the building industry to support the state government by ensuring voluntary compliance to existing rules and guidelines to curb cases of building collapse.

The governor, represented by his deputy, Dr. Kadri Obafemi Hamzat, stated this during the yearly stakeholders’ conference organised by Lagos State Material Testing Laboratory held in Ikeja.

Sanwo-Olu said his administration would ensure that building collapse becomes a thing of the past in the state.