Fashola vows to demolish structurally defective buildings

The Lagos State Government is to demolish all structurally defective
buildings as soon as it concludes investigations on them.
The state Commissioner for Special Duties, Dr Wale Ahmed, gave the
assurance while inspecting a three-storey building that collapsed on
Thursday morning on Otto Street, Ebute Meta.
He said that the government was doing everything possible to avoid
more building collapse.
"Every building marked for demolition will be pulled down as soon as
the agencies assigned to work on them conclude their investigations.
Ahmed hoped that building collapse would soon be a thing of the past
in Lagos State.
He said that the state Governor, Mr Babatunde Fashola, had constituted
a committee to look into building collapse in the state and make
recommendations.
At least seven persons died when the three-storey building collapsed.
A motorcycle seller, who occupied the ground floor of the building, Mr
Chukwudi Ezeobi, told reporters that about 200 Honda motorcycles
valued at N20 million was in his shop in the building before the
incident.
Another motorcycle seller, Mr Ambrose Aneke, said that he had about
100 cartons of motorcycle spare parts valued at about N3 million in
the building.
Also speaking to reporters, the Chairman, Mainland Local Government
Area, Mr Oladele Adekanye, said that the council would to its best to
assist in checking collapse of buildings.
Adekanye urged accommodation seekers to be careful to avoid renting
defective buildings.
He appealed to land developers to avoid using substandard materials.
He said that the council would ensure that the developers of collapsed
buildings were brought to book. (NAN)