Four Dead, Five Rescued from Collapsed Building in Lagos

  Traders defy court order  re-occupy distress building

Bennett Oghifo and Wale Igbintade

Four bodies were recovered and five people rescued from the rubbles of a four-floor building, under construction, that collapsed shortly at 4 Alayaki Lane, Freeman Street, Lagos Island.

The Permanent Secretary Lagos State Emergency Management Agency (LASEMA), Dr Olufemi Damilola Oke-Osanyintolu informed THISDAY of this development in a message on WhatsApp, stating “We are now in ground zero, Operation completed.”

According to Oke-Osanyintolu, “The Agency responded to the above incident (the building collapse) which was already in violation of building safety protocols. It was discovered that the building had been captured by the Lagos State Building Control Agency (LASBCA) District Office and served with all Statutory Notices, Sealed at District and Central Enforcement Level.

“Further investigation determined that the developer had continued clandestine operations mostly at night and on weekends.”

However, a professional in the building industry and strong advocate against building collapse, Kunle Awobodu said buildings have been collapsing around the Freeman Street axis and that the last time it happened at Ita Fagi, the Lagos State Government marked 100 buildings as defective and for demolition.  “They have not done so, and now this tragedy has happened at a building site under construction. The collapse of existing buildings and those under construction has made the situation very complex and difficult to predict.”

Awobodu, who was the president of the Building Collapse Prevention Guild, and former President of the Nigerian Institute of Building, said these ugly occurrences make professionals in the building industry to wonder why they happen even after their continuous campaign over the years against collapse of buildings that ought to enlighten people to go through the due process so that lives are not lost.

He said the frequent collapse of buildings in the country, particularly in Lagos, was a bad reflection on the nation’s building professionals.

“This is happening so close to the collapse that happened at Ebute Metta where several lives were lost. We just realised that our image in the other parts of the world has been so damaged that it erodes the confidence of professionals in Nigeria to raise their heads that they are competent. Whenever buildings collapse we are usually sad because how many people are you going to convince outside the country that we are not part of the shoddy building construction work that leads to collapse.”

Meanwhile,  one week after LASBCA evacuated the occupants of a distressed five-floor building located at 13/17 Breadfruit Street, Lagos Island, some traders have tried to use force to return to the building in breach of a court order.

LASBCA had on Monday, May 16, 2022, evacuated occupants of the distressed building in compliance with an order of the court for it to be restabilised or face demolition as directed by the stability report of the Lagos State Materials Testing.

A Special Offences Court in Ikeja had in a ruling delivered on May 13, 2022, in the suit filed by the Attorney-General of Lagos State against African Alliance Insurance and 13 others, directed LASBCA to evacuate the occupants.

The court presided over by Magistrate A. I Abina also directed that the NDT report implementation which includes a total renovation of the implement a non-destructive test, NDT report submitted to the court by LASBCA.

But, minutes after the agency executed the court ruling last week and left the premises, some of the occupants in the company of military officers came back and tried to reoccupy the building, and when that failed they rushed to Police Force CIID Alagbon to seek assistance to re-occupy the property and frustrate the renovation of the property.

Following this step, the traders risk being arrested and charged with contempt of court.

The occupants, according to averments made in court, had similarly disregarded an earlier interim order made on 25th October 2021 to evacuate and seal off the distressed building for safety purposes when they broke the government seal on the property, re-occupy the same, and continued to trade their goods there.

Before the latest development, the Lagos Planning Permit Authority had on August 6, 2020, granted renovation permits to the owners of the property, African Alliance Assurance Co Ltd.

Similarly, on September 28, 2020 LASBCA granted permission to the same owner to commence construction works on the property.

However, efforts to commence renovation and the re-stabilisation of the structure have continued to be frustrated by some of the traders whose sub-tenancies have allegedly expired.