“Governor Akinwunmi Ambode has given us the necessary support to prevent collapse of buildings and possible loss of lives and property. So, our agency will do everything, including intensive campaign against living in distressed buildings and construction of buildings with substandard materials”
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Lagos State Building and Control Agency (LASBCA) said it had identified about 120 buildings across the state suspected to be distressed.
The LASBCA General Manager, ‘Sola Adeigbe (an engineer), who disclosed this, said the government would do everything possible to avert loss of lives as a result of incidents of collapsed buildings.
Adeigbe also urged the residents to inform the agency of substandard ongoing constructions or existing distressed buildings still being occupied by unsuspecting or carefree residents.
He said Governor Akinwunmi Ambode had given a marching order for the agency to forestall building collapse and ensure that only certified standard structures were built in the state.
To prevent development of weak structures by quacks or compromised building experts, Adeigbe said LASBCA had opened a website for the intending builders or developers to fill a form via the Internet
informing the agency of their plans to commence construction work.
This, he explained, would enable government officials to inspect the building materials and the construction work since officials could not be everywhere.
He said: “Governor Akinwunmi Ambode has given us the necessary support to prevent collapse of buildings and possible loss of lives and property. So, our agency will do everything, including intensive
campaign against living in distressed buildings and construction of buildings with substandard materials.
“We all have to be safety conscious. Safety consciousness begins with our ability to alert government of any impending disaster from building and living in distressed structures.”
Adeigbe said though only 120 buildings were said to be in distressed, the government would do a thorough review of the buildings to ascertain their structural strength and integrity.
He said: “We cannot pull down a building unless we have a justifiable reason for doing so. Some buildings may be physically seen or identified as distressed, but we, on our own, will carry out
independent test on the buildings before we can ascertain if the building is truly weak.
“Some of the identified buildings may need to be restructured while some may be too weak for readjustment. In such case, we may be forced to demolish such buildings without hope, to prevent them from collapsing. We don’t demolish buildings anyhow.”
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