Governor of Lagos State, Mr.Babajide Sanwo-Olu said constituted a 7-man panel has been set up to investigate the cause of the building collapse within 30-days.
He said the panel members who are thorough professionals in their field are drawn from the private sectors.
“I have set up a high power commission of enquiry and its consists of everybody but outside of government and they have been given a thirty day assignment to identify what has gone wrong on the collapsed building.
The members of the panel are: Town planner Tayo Ayinde is the current president of Town planner Institute of Nigeria, Doctor Akintilo Idriss Adeleke, the foremost structural engineer in Nigeria, Architects Yinka Ogundairo, Builder Godfrey O Godfrey and Mrs Bunmi Ibrahim, a lawyer and property developer and the secretary of the panel is Ekundayo Onajobi and I am going to sign an executive order to give a legal backing to their composition and made their report known within thirty days.
Condoling with the family of those who lost their lives at the 21 storey building, Sanwo-Olu said the incident was a clear national disasters , noting that mistakes were made from all angles and this were things that were not supposed to be happening in a modern day city like Lagos.
“I want to also thank and commend the first responders that are being here almost two days now to see how they can bring out many survival possible and it has been a difficult journey for everyone of them and our Governmwnt appreciate their work and will would continue to ensure that whatever needed to be done to get to root cause of the issue.
“Since I came back from abroad where I was attending event, active work has been going on at the site and we have created a camp where family members are to register the names of their missing love one and their contact phone number.
“It was also on record that we have asked the managing director of building control agency to go on indefinite suspension, we have to take from the head of the agency and we are rest assured that if there are other people culpable they would also face the full wrath of the law.
“We are still conducting a search and rescue operation. We are pumping in oxygen and water intermediately into the debris so that those who are still under can survive.
We do not know when this will be completed, or how long it’s going to take. I can assure you we have enough resources and men who will continue to stay there until we can rescue all and the last person out of the rubble. Hope is all we required at this moment.
“We will continue to do the best that we can, this is not a typical search and rescue building collapse, it is a total floor by floor, all coming down, there is no pillar in any form, it is a total drop of floor by floor. It is a very really tough exercise that is being done.
We felt for the family , people are indeed upset and not comfortable. I can assure them that we are doing everything humanly possible.
“What we are going to do for the corpse that has been recovered, is to identify corpses, right now as we speak, we are conducting autopsy and we believed that before the end of today or sometimes tomorrow, the corpse should be ready for pickup for the family members.
Meanwhile,the Socialist Party of Nigeria,SPN,
has sought adequate compensation for all victims of the building collapse and their families.
The group in a statement also demanded comprehensive integrity tests on all high rise buildings in Lagos State including all physical structures suspected to have been built with substandard materials or in violation of approval in order to avoid a repeat of this tragedy.
It demanded immediate sack, arrest and prosecution of the General Managers of the Lagos State Building Control Agency (LASBCA) and the Lagos State Physical Planning Permit Authority (LASPPPA) as well as other Ministries and agencies that ought to have ensured strict compliance of the developer to the building approval issued as well as other standard procedures.
According to the group,the Lagos state government should arrest and prosecute the owners and officials of Fourscore Heights Limited as well as the contractors working with the company on the building project.
It also demanded an independent and democratic probe panel comprising representatives of professional bodies like the Council of Registered Builders of Nigeria (CORBON), Nigerian Society of Engineers (NSE), Nigeria Institute of Surveyors (NIS) etc and trade unions like the National Union of Civil Engineering, Construction, Furniture and Wood Workers (NUCECFWW), NLC and TUC, civil society and community associations with a view to unravelling the factor behind this building collapse and the incessant cases of building collapse in different parts of Lagos State.
It said:”In conclusion, the incessant building collapse in Lagos state is no doubt a product of the domination of the construction sector by private capitalist developers who in a desperate search for profit do not mind cutting corners and bringing down costs by underpaying workers and using substandard materials thereby endangering the lives of members of the public. Instead of regulating them, it is these private capitalist developers who regulate the government as seen in how they readily and freely utilize the apparatus of the State especially the Police and the army for their own end including snatching the lands of the poor by demolishing their houses, shanties and shops.
“The SPN hereby demands an end to the unconscionable waste of workers and human lives on the altar of capitalist profit. We demand that the Lagos state government takes up its responsibility to provide housing for the people as done previously by Lateef Jakande government in the state. This is still achievable by overhauling and re-tooling the Lagos State public works department to carry out massive housing projects across the state to ensure that the enormous deficit in housing is addressed in order to end homelessness, slum-dwelling as well as the unconscionable waste of human lives by private developers cutting corners to make profit”
846900cookie-checkLASG Constitutes Panel To Investigate Ikoyi Building Collapse,As Group Seeks Compensation For Victims
