Lagos Demolishes 17 Plazas in Alaba International Market

Sunday Ehigiator

No fewer than 17 mega plazas at the popular Alaba International Market were demolished by the Lagos state government yesterday, after officials of the Lagos State Building Control Agency (LASBCA) stormed the market located in the Ojo area of the state.

LASBCA officials escorted by heavily armed Task Force officials, stormed the market early in the early hours of yesterday  to demolish the affected buildings which the agency said were marked as distressed last Friday.

Among the shopping plazas demolished are, G80 Alaba Rago Road, Good Season Shopping Complex, the building on 840 Ojo Igbede and the structure behind Oba Oseni Plaza.

LASBCA’s General Manager, Gbolahan Oki had last Friday, said the state government would demolish the buildings before Monday.

Addressing newsmen on Friday, Oki said LASBCA had been on top of the game telling owners of the affected properties to do the right
 thing.

“We have officers in that vicinity who have served them severally. Even though they were served, people don’t yield to the notices. We have been serving them notices since 2016 and when we came on board we served them too. What they do whenever we go there is send area boys to disrupt our services.

“About a month ago, we made a list of 349 distressed buildings. The properties marked are supposed to be on the list and because they harass our staff, they are not captured on the list. They won’t allow our staff to do their jobs, so they are not on the list.

“So, we had to call the task force to enforce what we are supposed to do and these notices have been served to them since last year and apart from that, these properties have been served since 2016. If you look at 2016 till date, that is seven years and if you look at somebody who wants to be responsible in that environment, it is enough time for them to want to do the right thing, seven years is enough to rehabilitate the buildings.

“We have taken the bull by the horns and all those distressed buildings are going to go between now and Monday and that is why we called on the task force to be our guardian angel to provide security to make sure that the properties are brought down to save lives. That is what is paramount to the government. We have given them more than enough notices to comply and we will do the right thing.”

He added that those distressed buildings were not supposed to be in existence, saying that the government did not need to give a human face to what would cause disaster to the state and the people.

“We are telling them to save their lives by moving away and if the buildings come down, they will blame the government. We are not going to stop at the 17 distressed buildings, but we are moving to other localities, we have several buildings to be demolished, about 400.”