The Lagos State Building Control Agency has listed about 300 buildings for possible demolition.
The agency’s General Manager, Abiola Kosegbe spoke on Monday at an event titled, ‘Prevention of building collapse: A collective responsibility’ in Ikeja, Lagos.
Mrs Kosegbe said, “Right now, we have a list of almost 300 suspected buildings. This is based on our own visual inspection.”
“The initial thing we do is visual inspection. If we carry out visual inspection of your property and we believe that it appears distressed, that is the initial thing; it is not a scientific thing.
“Then, we will mark it and serve you the necessary services and tell you to go and conduct your non-destructive integrity test.
“Some will ignore and some will comply. When you comply and you have gone for your test, the next thing is to engage an engineer to do a complete structural assessment of your property and submit that report to us.
“If they have carried out their report and have been cleared, they can go on with their building.
“But on the other aspect, if it fails, we tell you immediately, this property needs to be removed. Then we take all the necessary steps to ensure that nobody files any legal matter against us.”
Lagos is home to many distress buildings and the Lagos State Building Control Agency have been wrking to prevent and manage the crisis.
Following the collapse of a building at Lagos island in 2019, the Lagos State Building Control Agency (LASBCA) conducted integrity testing on buildings in the area and found that 150 buildings were in certified structural distress. The LASBCA procured court approval to demolish 80 of these buildings,[11] and began demolition efforts two days following the collapse, giving little warning to residents.
To now if your house is one of these distressed buildings, click here to reach out to the LASBCA.
