News: 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.