Lagos govt evicts 200 occupants of distressed buildings

No fewer than 200 occupants' of three distressed buildings in Mushin
Local Government area of the state were weekend evicted by the state
government.
It has also continued the demolition of one of the three buildings; a
four-storey, located on 34 Adeyemi Street.
The two remaining buildings awaiting demolition are a two-storey and a
shopping complex located on 32 and 33 Adeyemi Street respectively.
However, the evicted occupants have alleged that they paid N100,000 to
un-named official of the Lagos State Building Control Agency, LASBCA,
to allow them remain in the distressed buildings for another year
beforedemolition.
It was learnt that some of the buildings were erected over 22 years
ago and were never renovated, but the landlords were only collecting
rents worth over N200, 000 each annually.
Vanguard gathered that five other buildings were also marked for
demolition for allegedly contravening approvals among others. They may
be demolished in a matter of days.
Speaking, General Manager of LASBCA, Mrs. Abimbola Animashaun-Odunayo,
said: "The occupants were evicted because the buildings are unsafe for
habitation. They haveobvious cracks and can collapse any moment. This
was the reason for government action. They are dangerous forhabitation
and if they collapsed today, about 200 occupants of the houses will
suffer severe injury. We haveto be proactive to ensure that buildings
especially distressed ones do not collapse on the occupants.
"To avoid loss of lives, a new slogan has been adopted; 'kill the
house, before it kills us'. We have issued the landlords of the
affected buildings notices thrice directing their tenants to vacate
the property. But they refused."
On the alleged bribery, she said: "I believe they made suchallegation
because they were upset. They believe that if they say that we can
pardon them. Earlier, they appealed for a week extension, but we
turned it down. We are all human beings. We have seen a lot of
collapsed buildings and we have seen the number of causalities that
died as buildings caved in. Why will anyone collect money from someone
when we know that such building can collapse any moment? We have
conscience."