LAGOS State accounts for more than half of Nigeria’s building collapse cases since 1974. In response, the state government created the Lagos State Building Control Agency and introduced several regulations to curb the menace. However, this investigation shows that poor compliance and weak enforcement continue to drive the recurring collapse of buildings in the state.
In May 2025, tragedy struck at the Ota-Ona area of Ikorodu, Lagos State.
What began as an ordinary Tuesday afternoon ended in horror when a two-storey uncompleted building came crashing, burying three members of the same family beneath layers of concrete and dust.
Among the dead were 16-year-old Maleek, his younger sister Ameerah,13, and their 73-year-old uncle, Bolaji.
The building had been under construction, financed by a family member abroad and supervised by the late Bolaji.
On that fateful day, Maleek and Ameerah were at the site only because they couldn’t leave home.
The community was observing the Oro traditional festival, which restricts movement, especially for women. Maleek had intended to go to the mosque for his afternoon prayers, but Ameerah, confined indoors by the festival’s customs, begged him to stay and pray with her under the shade of the uncompleted structure.
They never made it out alive.
Bolaji had come to inspect the site, intending to record the building’s progress for his brother overseas. But within moments, the building crumbled, crushing all three beneath it.
Though ten construction workers were rescued from the debris by the Lagos State Fire and Rescue Service, none of the victims were part of the building crew.
Residents who spoke with The ICIR said the building had shown visible signs of weakness. Others blamed the site engineer and the government.
The families are among a long list of victims of building collapse, which have claimed scores of lives in Lagos. The state alone accounts for over 55 per cent of all incidents in Nigeria, according to a 2025 report by the Building Collapse Prevention Guild (BCPG).
Between October 1974 and January 2025, Nigeria experienced at least 640 building collapses, with over half of these incidents occurring in Lagos, the report indicates.
Recurring tragedy
Building collapse is a recurring tragedy in Lagos, Nigeria’s bustling commercial capital. Despite the state’s building control laws and regulatory agencies, the city continues to witness fatal structural failures that often claim multiple lives.
Experts and residents alike blame a deadly mix of substandard materials, weak enforcement, and disregard for safety standards.
One of the most tragic building collapses in recent memory occurred in Ikoyi, one of Lagos’s most affluent neighbourhoods. A 21-storey high-rise block of luxury apartments, still under construction, came crashing down, killing 46 people, including the developer, Femi Osibona.
The building crumbled on Osibona, along with his workmen, site supervisors, engineers, bricklayers, and others who were on-site at the time.
According to Oluwafemi Oke-Osanyintolu, Director-General of the Lagos State Emergency Management Agency (LASEMA), the agency deployed “heavy life-saving equipment,” but it was too late to save those who were trapped.
Although the project had received approval from the Lagos State Building Control Agency (LASBCA), the regulatory body established under the Lagos State Urban and Regional Planning and Development Law of 2010, investigation revealed that the approved building standards had been disregarded.
Although the Ikoyi collapse remains one of the deadliest in recent memory, many similar incidents have followed, leading to loss of lives and properties.
Findings by The ICIR show that in the first half of 2025 alone, at least eight incidents of building collapse were recorded across the state. Interviews with residents revealed that many of the affected structures had been standing for years. Still, attempts by owners to renovate or add extra floors without proper reinforcement often triggered their collapse.
The year began on a sad note after a building collapsed at Northern Vulture Estate, Chevron Drive, Lekki. Three people were confirmed dead, while six others sustained injuries. On the same day, a two-storey building under construction collapsed in the Ikota, Lekki area of Lagos, killing an adult and a boy. Ibrahim Farinloye, coordinator of the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) in Lagos, said five persons sustained serious injuries.
On March 5, two persons were killed and six seriously injured after a three-storey building collapsed in the Odoriwu Estate at the Elf Bus stop area of Lagos.
Just a few months later, on April 19, tragedy struck in the Ojodu-Berger area, where a three-storey commercial building caved in during business hours. The building, which housed the popular Equal Rights Restaurant and Bar, collapsed around 9 a.m. on the fateful day trapping workers, customers, and a family of three. Two people were confirmed killed in the incident, and more than 20 others sustained injuries.
In May, another two-storey structure under construction in the Idi-Araba area of Mushin collapsed during the early hours. The incident claimed the life of one labourer, while three others narrowly escaped. Residents said the building was like a bomb waiting to explode.
Later that same month, the Ota-Ona community in Ikorodu was thrown into mourning when a two-storey uncompleted building collapsed, killing three members of the same family: 16-year-old Maleek, his 13-year-old sister Ameerah, and their uncle Bolaji.
By June, the trend continued with the collapse of a building under construction on Craig Street in Shomolu during a concrete decking exercise. While no lives were lost—thanks to the swift evacuation of workers and nearby residents—the incident raised fresh concerns about the safety of ongoing construction projects across the state.
Victims, eyewitnesses share experience
When the building housing the Equal Rights restaurant at Ojodu Berger collapsed on April 19, 2025, 24-year-old Gbolahan Bashir was at work in the restaurant and bar, where he had been employed for less than a month.
A former student of the Federal College of Education, Akoka, he was in the process of seeking admission into Lagos State University through direct entry.
That morning had started routinely. He woke up, took his bath, dressed in his work clothes and waited for the day to begin. Then shouts erupted outside. The manager entered and told everyone to leave the building.
As the workers stepped outside, they noticed a pillar inside the structure beginning to crack. Gbolahan turned back to retrieve his bag. Less than ten seconds later, the deck above collapsed, trapping him.
Under the rubble, he heard voices calling for help. One belonged to a colleague, with whom he exchanged words for a while before her voice faded. He crawled over broken bottles, hitting his head against walls in an attempt to find a way out.
Occasionally, the rescuers’ voices calling his name, Gbolahan, reached him, but no one was able to locate him. Exhaustion set in. He used one shoe as a pillow and urinated on himself several times while lying in the same position.
Some moments later, a familiar voice, his “street brother,” Ibrahim, reached him through the rubble. Gbolahan crawled forward so he could be heard clearly. An excavator was brought in, and the rescuers cut through iron rods to create an opening.
He was pulled out and taken to an ambulance, where his stepfather was waiting. At the hospital, doctors treated the cuts and bruises he had sustained while trapped under the collapsed building.
A resident of the area, Richard Victor, told The ICIR that the collapse did not come to him as a surprise.
He said the structure had been standing for over 15 years and should have undergone proper reinforcement before any additional work was done.
“I came around three days before the incident and even watched a Madrid and Arsenal match inside the building,” Victor recalled. “I asked a friend of mine, ‘Are they building another house on top of this building?’ At the very least, they should have evacuated the place for about two months and done a solid foundation inside and outside before adding anything on top. But they didn’t because they didn’t want to lose money. That was the mistake they made.”
Victor explained that in cases like this, developers ought to dig around the building, pour concrete, add pillars, and temporarily evacuate people who use the premises before continuing construction. “They failed to do all that, and that’s why the collapse happened,” he said.
Speaking with ICIR, a resident of the Ota Ana community, Isiaka Ahmed, who witnessed the May 27, 2025, collapse recounted how the incident happened during the Oro festival at around 1 p.m.
“The new two-storey building first shook before collapsing; about eight people were inside — five workers upstairs doing finishing work, and three people downstairs. The head of the family was sitting, and two children, a boy and a girl, were praying,” he said.
He explained that the building was funded by a man based in Australia who planned to celebrate Eid there. “When the building shook, the children ran to one side. The new building fell toward the middle of an old three-storey building opposite. Because of how strong the old building was, it didn’t collapse, but it bent and pushed back the two-storey building. Then the new building collapsed completely,” he said.
According to him, all three people downstairs died instantly, while the roof fell on the five workers upstairs, injuring them. “It was the Oro festival, and ladies weren’t allowed to come out, so people weren’t much outside. It was around 7 p.m. before people were able to rescue the victims. The head of the family was already dead,” he said.
He added that a smaller building behind the collapsed one was demolished to allow a caterpillar in for rescue.
“After demolishing the building at the back and getting to where the children were, the boy’s head was snatched, and the girl’s back was snatched. Both of them were dead,” he said.
He said the collapse was due to the weakness of the foundation, which had been abandoned for about ten years before construction resumed.
Lagos government policies
Although building codes and regulations exist to prevent structural failures, many residents often disregard these laws, with some enforcement agencies complicit, as previously highlighted.
Experts point out that while the National Building Code of 2006 outlines minimum safety standards for structural integrity, both private and public actors in the construction sector rarely consult or adhere to its provisions.
Former Governor of Lagos, Babatunde Fashola, had established the Lagos State Building Control Agency (LASBCA) under the Lagos State Urban and Regional Planning and Development Law of 2010 to tackle the persistent issue of building collapses in the state.
However, the agency officially commenced operations on August 12, 2012. LASBCA was created to ensure that buildings across Lagos are properly designed, constructed, and maintained according to safety standards, in order to prevent loss of lives and property.
Despite this mandate, the agency has been criticised by experts for poor inspection and monitoring of building construction projects, with accusations that it often conducts perfunctory site visits that fail to effectively assess safety and structural integrity.
This has created loopholes through which substandard structures continue to spring up across the state, putting lives and property at risk.
Efforts to speak with the spokesperson of the agency, Adu Ademuyiwa Adegoke, proved abortive as he refused to comment on the issue when contacted via phone call and text.
Meanwhile, The ICIR gathered that Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu has launched the Certified Accreditors Programme (CAP) in March 2025—a reform designed to bring private sector professionals into the inspection process.
CAP, which arose from recommendations by a 2021 advisory panel, allows accredited experts to review project drawings, monitor construction stages, and flag illegal structures in coordination with regulators.
This initiative aims to strengthen building regulations and ensure stricter compliance with safety standards.
Beyond CAP, the government has pursued more visible enforcement. In August 2025, Lagos hosted the National Stakeholders’ Engagement on Building Collapse Prevention at Tafawa Balewa Square (TBS), in collaboration with the Federal Ministry of Housing and Urban Development.
Governor Sanwo-Olu used the platform to highlight Lagos disproportionate share of collapse incidents, over 60 per cent between 2005 and 2022, and called for strict adherence to codes, compulsory insurance, periodic structural audits, and even the creation of a National Building Tribunal.
The Lagos State Building Control Agency, he noted, has intensified enforcement operations, expanded sensitisation campaigns, and deepened collaboration with allied agencies like LASPPPA, the Safety Commission, and the State Materials Testing Laboratory.
The agency also issues quit notices to illegal occupants at citing environmental and security risks, while also removing illegal shop extensions in Surulere that encroached on public spaces.
For instance, more than 10 non-compliant buildings were sealed at Victory Estate in Ejigbo for lacking approvals despite repeated contravention notices. However, despite these efforts continues to account for the highest rate of building collapse in the country.
Experts blame lack of enforcement by authorities
A building expert and Chief Executive of North Court Real Estate, Ayo Ibaru, noted that the recurrent building collapse is a result of Lagos State government’s failure to ensure full compliance with building standards—an oversight that continues to cost lives and property in Nigeria’s commercial capital despite the existence of numerous regulatory agencies and guidelines.
“The government has to take responsibility for ensuring that people do what they are supposed to do and penalising those who don’t,” Ibaru said, adding: “We have the laws, we have the agencies, but there are no consequences. That’s why this keeps happening.”
He argued that every building collapse should trigger a formal inquiry involving all professionals linked to the project, such as developers, contractors, architects, and regulators, with the findings made public
“If a building collapses, there has to be an inquiry. The report should be published. Who is getting fined? Who is going to prison? What are the lessons learned? That’s standard practice in any modern city,” he said.
According to Ibaru, the widespread cases of building collapses in Lagos are driven by the massive demand for housing, fueled by a growing population and constant migration into the city. But the problems are not limited to demand alone.
One major factor, he explained, is the skyrocketing cost of building materials, driven largely by Nigeria’s weakening currency. The cost escalation, he said, makes it difficult for developers to stick to original plans or secure additional funding.
Ibaru blamed frequent building collapses on poor regulation enforcement, owner interference, and rushed construction. According to him, many developers, under financial pressure, cut corners by hiring unskilled workers and using substandard materials, often sourced by owners who lack technical knowledge.
He also highlighted the danger of changing a building’s use, like converting schools to flats without structural adjustments, stressing that enforcement in Lagos is slow and often comes too late.
He added that Lagos suffers from a poor maintenance culture and weak supervision, with regulators overwhelmed and understaffed.
When asked how developers manage to bypass the numerous regulatory steps, Ibaru said many builders often found a way “to get some kind of green light from someone in the regulator, most times not the right person.”
To curb regulatory corruption, Ibaru floated the idea of adopting a Singapore-style model where government officials are paid handsomely to resist the temptation of bribes. But ultimately, he insisted, “Every group in the value chain has questions to answer.”
He called for the government to release quarterly reports on building collapses, their causes, and actions taken. “We should probably have a TV and radio station, or streaming service, that shows us these court proceedings,” he said. “You have to show the international community that lives matter within your borders.”
On his part, a civil engineer, Emmanuel Olaleye, identified poor supervision, substandard materials, and non-compliance with building codes as major contributors to the recurring cases of building collapse in Lagos State.
Speaking on the factors driving the crisis, Olaleye said while developers often adhere to regulations on paper, many bypass critical safety protocols during construction, sometimes with the help of corrupt officials.
“There are cases where a building originally approved for three storeys ends up with an extra floor added illegally,” he said. “This often happens because the developer wants to maximise profit after paying heavily for land and ends up bribing the building control agency to overlook the violation.
“The high cost of land and construction materials compels developers to cut corners to reduce costs and increase returns,” Olaleye explained.
When asked about gaps in regulation, Olaleye stressed that weak enforcement and corruption within regulatory bodies, especially the Lagos State Building Control Agency (LASBCA), undermine safety efforts.
To address the issue, he recommended strict enforcement of building codes and a crackdown on bribery within regulatory agencies. “LASBCA officials must ensure their ‘yes’ is yes. No cutting corners, no bribes,” he said.
While noting that Nigeria has strong engineering capacity, Olaleye lamented that corruption continues to undermine its potential. “Nigeria is one of the best in construction, but corruption is everywhere. Our government is killing us with our own greediness,” he added.
Lagos government reacts
Gboyega Akosile, the Chief Press Secretary to the Lagos State Governor, said the state government has intensified enforcement of building regulations as part of efforts to reduce incidents of building collapse.
Responding to questions on persistent structural failures in the state, Akosile said the government maintains a zero-tolerance policy for violations of building laws and has strengthened oversight through coordinated efforts among relevant ministries and agencies.
“When the government realised the scale of the problem, ministries and agencies within the built sector came together to review existing policies,” he said. “As a result, we stepped up enforcement, and that’s why there’s been a noticeable reduction in building collapses this year.”
Akosile noted that advocacy remains central to the government’s strategy. He explained that builders are regularly sensitised on the need to obtain all necessary permits and engage only certified professionals before beginning construction.
“You can’t get permits in Lagos if your engineers and other professionals are not duly certified,” he stated. “Professional bodies play a key role in ensuring standards, and we do rigorous monitoring and compliance checks throughout construction.”
On concerns that some developers flout regulations even after obtaining permits, Akosile expressed scepticism, insisting that ongoing construction sites are regularly monitored by agencies such as the Lagos State Building Control Agency (LASBCA).
“We still go around to construction sites,” he said. “Many of the recent collapses involved old buildings that had already been served evacuation notices before they failed. It’s not a failure of regulation but a matter of compliance and enforcement.”
Akosile affirmed the state government’s commitment to making building collapses a thing of the past, calling on all stakeholders to play their part in upholding safety standards.
He urged strict adherence to due process, saying: “Don’t cut corners; get your permits, work with certified professionals, and don’t patronise quacks. The government is here to serve, not to be circumvented.”
Nurudeen Akewushola is an investigative reporter and fact-checker with The ICIR. He believes courageous in-depth investigative reporting is the key to social justice, accountability and good governance in society. You can reach him via nyahaya@icirnigeria.org and @NurudeenAkewus1 on Twitter.