The General Manager, Lagos State Building Control Agency, Mrs Abiola Kosegbe, said it has listed about 300 buildings that it suspected could be distressed and is investigating them for possible demolition.
She spoke during an event themed ‘Prevention of building collapse: A collective responsibility’ in Ikeja, Lagos.
“Right now, we have a list of almost 300 suspected buildings. This is based on our own visual inspection.”
According to her, statistics showed that the incidence of building collapse has reduced compared to last year.
While speaking on reasons for marking buildings under construction, she said preventing building collapse was the duty of everyone.
She said, “The initial thing we do is visual inspection. If we carry out visual inspection of your property and we believe that it appears distressed, that is the initial thing; it is not a scientific thing.
“Then, we will mark it and serve you the necessary services and tell you to go and conduct your non-destructive integrity test.
“Some will ignore and some will comply. When you comply and you have gone for your test, the next thing is to engage an engineer to do a complete structural assessment of your property and submit that report to us.
“If they have carried out their report and have been cleared, they can go on with their building.
“But on the other aspect, if it fails, we tell you immediately, this property needs to be removed. Then we take all the necessary steps to ensure that nobody files any legal matter against us.”
She added that forfeiture occurs if the owner allows the building to collapse, but there would not be forfeiture in removal if it is done in a timely manner
– Punch