The Lagos state government has said that it will soon commence the demolition of all structurally defective buildings as soon as it concludes investigations on such structures across the state.
The state commissioner for special duties, Wale Ahmed, assured Lagos residents while inspecting a three-storey building that collapsed on Thursday in Ebute Meta.
He promised that the government will do everything possible to avert future occurrences of collapse buildings.
“Every building marked for demolition will be pulled down as soon as the agencies assigned to work on them conclude their investigations,” he added.
Ahmed said that the state governor, Babatunde Fashola, was still awaiting recommendations from the constituted committee drafted to look into building collapse in the state.
The information officer of the National Emergency Management Agency, NEMA, in Lagos state, Ibrahim Farinloye confirmed that no fewer than seven bodies were retreaved from the collapsed building while a one year old child, three women and five men were rescued from the debris of the structure.
A motorcycle seller who is one of the occupants of the ground floor of the building, Chukwudi Ezeobi, told reporters that about 200 Honda motorcycles valued at N20 million were in his shop in the building before the incident.
Another motorcycle seller, 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, Oladele Adekanye, promised that the council would contribute its quota in identifying defective buildings within its locality.
Adekanye, however, urged tenants to be vigilant while renting houses. He said that the council would ensure that the developers of collapsed buildings are brought to book.