Lagos govt to enforce demolition of distressed buildings 

The Lagos State Commissioner for Physical Planning and Urban Development, Dr. Idris Salako, said on Saturday the state government would enforce the law on demolition of distressed buildings.

The commissioner stated this when he visited the site of the three-storey building which collapsed in the early hours of Saturday on Freeman Street, Lagos Island.

He said: “When we capture a building as distressed, people need to be moved out immediately, which we have been doing.

“However, when you move them out, they will still come back after the officers from these emergency management agencies leave.”

The commissioner said the ministry would soon carry out an advert which would earmark over 100 distressed houses to be demolished across the state.

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“The greed of developers, economising building materials for maximum gain also led to easy collapse of these buildings,” he added.

Salako added that the state government would be at the forefront of efforts to detect the distressed buildings and demolish them.

The Director-General of the Lagos State Emergency Management Agency (LASEMA), Dr. Oluwafemi Oke-Osanyintolu, who was also at the scene of the collapsed building, noted that three people died and nine others survived the incident.

He said combined efforts of different emergency management agencies helped in rescuing the survivors who had received medical treatment.

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