Lagos State Governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu says all state officials found culpable in the collapse of a seven-storey building on Banana Island and other illegal constructions there will be “appropriately sanctioned”.
Governor Sanwo-Olu issued the veiled threat in Ikoyi, during an on-the-spot assessment of the collapsed structure and other buildings under construction.
The Governor had earlier set up a seven-man committee to investigate the cause of the collapse of the multi-storey building under whose rubble a yet-to-be-identified corpse was recovered. A stop-work order on all building sites on Banana Island was consequently issued.
Governor Sanwo-Olu expressed worry that the original boundary marked out in the high-brow estate had been breached by “irresponsible developers”, and said all the properties abutting the waters were built without recourse to the Lagos State Government as the developers claimed to have received approval from the Federal Ministry of works and Housing and the National Inland Waterways Authority (NIWA).
“The illegality is real; we have had to replace monitoring staff because the excuses that they don’t have access are not tenable,” he said.
“This is total recklessness, and we will make a strong point out of this place and all around Banana and other developments that we have. It is heartbreaking each time we have to go through these and it shows sometimes how irresponsible those developers and some of our citizens that just want to make quick money are.”
He continued: “And our officers who are also not alive to their responsibilities, We have had to change staff here and there, so that we can bring forward robust and very strong monitoring officers. But we believe that we are still far from; we are still short on it I must say, but we will continue to do what we need to do to ensure that we keep the lives of our residents safe at all times.”
The Governor ordered the “immediate removal” of a number of buildings across the estate and personally supervised the marking of some of the buildings for demolition.
Reporting by Omolara Omosanya; Editing by Daniel Adejo and Tony Okerafor