Maryland building collapse: Lagos to prosecute owner, site engineer.
The Special Adviser to the Lagos State Governor on enterprises geographical information system, Dr Olajide Babatunde said the owner and site engineer of the building tat Collapse in Maryland axis of Lagos last week Wednesday will be prosecuted for failing to obey building regulations.
The Special Adviser made the pronoucement on Saturday during a visit to the site of the Collapse buiding in Maryland.
Dr Babatunde disclosed that the building which had been abandon for a long time and needed to be re-certified before recommencement of construction to ascertain the structural stability of the building project.
He disclosed further that the State building Control Agency had served all statutory notice on the building when it was notice gat the developer had recommence construction. Such notices included a stop work order, notice to do a Non- Destructive Test,notice for revalidation of permits amongst other which the developer ignored.
He said the site engineer is already in police custody while the owner of the building is on the run.
While regretting the unfortunate loss of lives in the incident, De Babatunde directed that henceforth nobody should sleep in a buildings undergoing constructions and all construction work should not go beyond 7pm everyday excluding Sundays.
He further directs that property owners and developers should revalidate all letters of authorization to commence building construction issued to them.
He called on developers to alway ensure that all relevant professionals in the built environment such as civil/ structural, electrical, mechanical engineer and architects are engaged in building construction.
The General Manager of the Lagos State Building Control Agency (LASBCA) Arc Gbolahan Oki who was also at the site of the collapse building notes that the soil structure of the area is very poor.
He observed that buildings already constructed in the area will have to undergo structural test to ascertain their stability and fitness for habilitation. He noted that any building which fails the test will have to be remove immidiately.