Lagos govt orders demolition of 20 buildings in Banana Island

Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu of Lagos State, who is upset over the numerous construction collapses in the state, has ordered the destruction of 20 homes on Banana Island in the Ikoyi neighbourhood.

During a visit to the scene of the most recent building collapse on Banana Island's First Avenue yesterday, a visibly enraged Sanwo-Olu accused several federal agencies of being responsible for the episodes of building collapse on the exclusive Island. The governor also criticized the National Inland Waterways Authority (NIWA), the estate's promoters, for issuing authorization to fill the Lagos Lagoon with sand without taking into account the terrain.

He stated that the site of the collapsed building was not originally part of the island’s plan.“We are at the back of the land that is abutting. You can see that the original line for Banana Island is not even here. It is way in front and you can see that there are several extensions granted by both the Federal Ministry of Works and Housing and NIWA. These are the two federal agencies that have been culpable for those extensions. They have done these extensions without our knowledge.“We have responsibility for building approval. All of the four buildings at the back never got our approval. This is an illegality that is real and that is why we are going around the properties.

“The excuse that they don’t have access is not acceptable. It is total recklessness. All the developers and the culpable officers will be sanctioned.“But what we are doing now is – we have set up an external committee who are given two weeks to independently ascertain what has gone wrong here and they should finish the work towards the end of next week. This will further strengthen our hands to be able to come up with a robust work plan that we can enforce going forward.

“It is heartbreaking each time we have to go through this and it shows how irresponsible both the developers, some of our citizens that just want to make quick money, and of course our officers, who are not alive to their responsibility.

“We have had to change staff here and there so that we can bring forward robust and very strong monitoring offices, but we are still short of it, I must say. We need to do what we have to do to keep the lives of our citizens safe at all times, ” Sanwo-Olu explained. The governor accused some officials of the Lagos State Building Control Agency (LASBCA) of corruption, stressing that they would be held responsible for the recent collapse of a seven-story building on the island recently.

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