Lagos govt demolishes 13 illegal buildings along Airport Road

13 erroneous buildings were demolished by the Lagos State Government on Friday at I.K. Peter Street in Ajao Estate, which is adjacent to Murtala International Airport.

After serving many notices to the tenants, representatives of the Lagos State Building Control Agency (LASBCA) invaded the area with bulldozers to start demolishing the unlawful buildings.

Gbolahan Owodunni Oki, the general manager of LASBCA, explained the grounds for the demolition on Friday. He said the buildings lacked the necessary licenses, were located in airport-prohibited areas, and others were found to be on aviation fuel pipes.

Oki claimed that the builders lacked the necessary paperwork as approvals for building in that region and expressed his fear for the destruction that a fire outbreak from the pipeline could do to people's lives and property.

Oki claims that the buildings were built in violation of the rules set forth by the legislation now in effect.

He added that the buildings had no planning permit and were built around the pipelines, saying that “nobody in his right thinking mind will go and buy a plot on a pipeline and build on the pipeline.”

The head of the LASBCA claimed that proper consultations and communications had taken place, and that residents of the impacted buildings had been given nearly two years to leave the premises.

Since the airport was "extremely close," Oki lamented that building collapse in Lagos had become a topic of "attitudinal problem." He emphasized that no Nigerian life is worth being lost due to the dangers that the citing of the buildings posed.

The General Manager urged Lagos, residents, to report instances of unlawful structures to the authorities, warning that doing so would have unfavourable repercussions and cause significant losses.

The Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN), for its part, expressed satisfaction that the Lagos State Government was taking action in response to repeated warnings and attempts to halt building construction by those it referred to as "encroachers" who "stole" from the Airport land.

Source