The Lagos State Building Control Agency (LABSCA) has begun demolition of defective buildings on the Lagos Island.
Officials of the agency’s task force pulled down a three-storey building on 60A, Freeman Street, Epetedo area.
The demolition exercise is not unconnected with the Wednesday incident around the same area, where a four-storey building collapsed, killing over 10 people and leaving scores injured.
LABSCA official, Mr. Omotayo Fakolujo, said the property owner had been served several notices dating back to 2013 before the demolition.
He said that over 150 houses on the Lagos Island have been marked for demolition.
“On the Lagos Island, we have over 150 houses marked for demolition. We have removed over 30 in the last one year and we are going to be removing them in phase. What we are trying to do is to remove occupants from all these structures that have been marked so that no life is lost in Lagos. For now on Lagos Island alone, we have a clear court case approval of over 80 cases and 80 structures that are ready for removal and we will do it in phases systematically from today (yesterday) so that life will be comfortable for Lagosisns. We will remove three today on Lagos Island. And for the houses that are still occupied, we are going to evict the occupants of the structures because their lives are more important to us.
“On our mode of demolishing, these structures are so close by; we have to remove them systematically, manually so that we can ensure that there is safety. The exercise is not prompted by the recent collapsed building. Before this incident, we had removed over 10 structures within Ajeromi Ifemodun and Apapa within the Ijora axis,” he said.
Contrary to previous experiences, residents and passers-by on Freeman Street, Epetedo, Lagos, praised the officials for the demolition exercise.
In the Bode area of Ibadan, Oyo State, there was wailing at Shogoye bus stop on Friday, when a three-storey building under construction collapsed, with several people injured and others trapped in the rubble.
Nobody had been confirmed dead at the time of filing this report but efforts were ongoing to rescue trapped victims from the wreckage.
The building was said to have collapsed around 5:54pm while bricklayers and other artisans on site were rounding off the day’s work.
One of the survivors, Toheeb Gbadamosi, 19, said: “Today is my first time of working at this place. I just came around in order to raise some money for my upkeep. I thank God that I came out of the rubble alive.”
Others who were rescued from the wreckage were 42-year-old Olalekan Dauda; Rilwan Oladepo and another worker identified simply as Tunde.
Dauda said he was working with other artisans on the third floor when the building collapsed. He said he just heard a sudden blast and later found that he and others in the building were trapped in its rubble.
According to one of the rescuers, who gave his name as Aafa Mojeed Agbaje, two of his relatives (Tunde and Oladepo) were in the collapsed building.
Agbaje said: “I am worried because other people that I know are presently in the wreckage. Tunde sustained injuries on his face and limbs. We have taken him to Molete Hospital and he is recuperating.”
A crowd of sympathisers, comprising traders and residents of the area, besieged the scene.
The incident led to a gridlock in the area as motorists from Idi Arere and Ojaaba areas, as well as those from Molete end of the city could not move freely.
One of the fire fighters who spoke with Saturday Tribune at the scene on the condition of anonymity, said: “We responded promptly to the emergency as we got to the scene about 35 minutes after the alert.
“We are trying our best to rescue the victims but the challenge we are facing is getting the right equipment to lift the concrete wreckage. Another challenge is the time of the day; it will soon get dark but that will not deter us from doing our best.”