The collapsed Synagogue building that killed 115 |
General
Manager, Lagos State Building Control Agency, LASBCA, Mrs. Abimbola
Animashaun-Odunayo, in this interview, speaks on the recent collapsed building
belonging to the Synagogue Church of All Nations, SCOAN, the intricacies
surrounding it, the next line of action by the state government, among others.
Excerpts:
What
actually went wrong with the SCOAN collapsed building?
We need support from stakeholders and everyone. Before now, we have been trying to curtail incidence of collapse building until we had the latest one. I think the problem of Synagogue Church of All Nations, SCOAN, brought the issue to the fore again. A lot of institutions are too secretive they will not allow government officials do their job properly. They believed that if you are not a member, you cannot have access to their premises.
We need support from stakeholders and everyone. Before now, we have been trying to curtail incidence of collapse building until we had the latest one. I think the problem of Synagogue Church of All Nations, SCOAN, brought the issue to the fore again. A lot of institutions are too secretive they will not allow government officials do their job properly. They believed that if you are not a member, you cannot have access to their premises.
Perhaps,
what happened in Synagogue would not have happened if they had allowed
government officials do their job. What Synagogue needs to know is that the
place is no more in their purview, everything now belongs to government because
that’s what the law stipulates. Anytime our officials went there they were
prevented.
We could
not gain access. I believe we need to sensitize public institutions more, so
that when an incident happens they give way to rescue team and government
officials otherwise there will be issues like this in future. We will not allow
this anymore because the law has given us the power to carry out our work
effectively and efficiently.
We have a
task force, but on that fateful Friday, church staff did not allow us to have
access to the collapsed site until when Rapid Response Squad, RRS, came to our
aid. People should allow us access to do our job without fear. We have had
issues where we were beaten, harassed and molested in the course of doing our
duties, it should stop.
They fail
to realize that the function of our agency is to save lives, reduce incidence
of building collapse to zero. If people are not allowing us to do our job we
cannot save lives. I think we need to increase the number of our taskforce men
to enhance our work.
In the
Synagogue incident, was your agency not carried along in the building process
and do they have necessary approval?
We are still investigating. As I said earlier, we asked them about the approval papers, but the representatives of the church said the approval papers had been burie4d in the rubble. So we are still waiting for them to present the papers.
We are still investigating. As I said earlier, we asked them about the approval papers, but the representatives of the church said the approval papers had been burie4d in the rubble. So we are still waiting for them to present the papers.
Yet,
the fact is that the building in question was initially a two-storey
building before they added four raising it to six. They could not have done
that without having competent people overseeing the building. If a raft
foundation was done to carry out two-storey building, what did they do to
fortify the strength of that foundation to carry out six-storey building.? This
is the question we are asking them. Investigation is on-going; until we finish
the investigation, we won’t be able to do much. We are just waiting for
the result.
Lagos
State Material Testing, current registered institutions, NIA and other
professionals are all involved in the investigation. We will do the test
to unravel the cause of the collapse. Even though, they said it was due to
aircraft, we have a lot of houses that planes fly over. everyday and they are
not collapsing, so why this particular one, we have to conduct a thorough
investigation.
On the
seeming reluctance of the state government to place immediate sanction as it is
usually the case.
The state government is not reluctant. The fact is that the place is not a plot of land, it is a compound. We cannot go ahead and seal the whole place, the site is an open space. We can’t seal for now, because the law says when such an incident happens, the first thing to do is to evacuate victims into safety after which we have to cordon off the place and take charge. But unfortunately that land has other plans.
The state government is not reluctant. The fact is that the place is not a plot of land, it is a compound. We cannot go ahead and seal the whole place, the site is an open space. We can’t seal for now, because the law says when such an incident happens, the first thing to do is to evacuate victims into safety after which we have to cordon off the place and take charge. But unfortunately that land has other plans.
And also
because of the aircraft theory, we have to investigate. Aviation experts are
involved. We have to sort things out before taking action. The Urban and
Regional Planning and Development Law, 2010 is there. We need to follow the
law. So we are leaving everything till investigation is concluded which I
believe will come very soon. But, I can assure you appropriate action will be
taken.
Similar
challenges in the course of duty.
We have several nasty cases. There are places where our staff were beaten up and prevented from doing their work sometimes by people using guns. We have cases of barracks where buildings are in distressed and dilapidated state. When we go for inspection, they harass us and chase us away with guns. I think the Federal Governments and the governor need to do something about them fast before they start falling down one after the other
We have several nasty cases. There are places where our staff were beaten up and prevented from doing their work sometimes by people using guns. We have cases of barracks where buildings are in distressed and dilapidated state. When we go for inspection, they harass us and chase us away with guns. I think the Federal Governments and the governor need to do something about them fast before they start falling down one after the other
Because
as long as a building is within Lagos State, the governor has the power, under
the 2014 Urban and Regional Planning and Development Law, to challenge and
enforce the law.
Particularly,
the Federal Government should do something now about the distressed buildings
in police barracks, most especially the ones in Ikeja, Iponri, Ojuelegba,
Obalende areas, all those barracks are not in good condition. There is need for
immediate intervention to prevent avoidable loss of lives.
Like the
ones in Iponri and Ikeja, we have compiled our reports and sent to the
authorities and I am sure the state is working in collaboration with the FG
because we will not allow any loss of life because of negligence and
stubbornness.
We will
not wait for the magnitude of destruction of lives and property like that of
SCOAN to happen in Lagos before something is done.
We plan
to reduce the incidence of building collapse in this state to zero tolerance.
Incidence of building collapse will stop in the country if Nigerians imbibe the
culture of adhering to building laws, rules and regulations.
We
implore Lagosians to help us to help them, to save lives because if you say it
doesn’t concern you, you may have relatives, family members friends in the
collapsed building. We don’t want anyone to lose his or her life and that’s why
we are around. After the SCOAN incident, people have been coming forward to tell
us of other noticed distressed buildings.
How
building standard is measured in the state.
Soil test must be determined. The soil on the Island is not the same as the one on the Mainland. Depending on the soil investigation, we can determine the kind of foundation required. The foundation will always determine the type of building whether bungalow, duplex, high-rise, among others. LASBCA always gets involved in any building from the soil investigation; when you have this, we give you one or two options.
Soil test must be determined. The soil on the Island is not the same as the one on the Mainland. Depending on the soil investigation, we can determine the kind of foundation required. The foundation will always determine the type of building whether bungalow, duplex, high-rise, among others. LASBCA always gets involved in any building from the soil investigation; when you have this, we give you one or two options.
It is now
left to you to make a choice. And when we approve what the person intends to
do, we follow-up right from the foundation to the level of construction
so that we can do the stage inspection and certification to ensure that the
developer is building right, that is, to make sure the building is up to the
standard specification and building code and according to the law after which
he can proceed to the necessary things: the wall, the blocks and materials are
of good quality. At end of the day, we look at drainage, plumbing, electricity,
fire safety and then the roofing.
Vanguard
1 comment:
Lets see how it goes, we are watching, the end will justify the ......
kudos on your effort to sanitize our beloved Eko
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