180 buildings for demolition in Lagos

AS the rest of the world continues to mourn the Wednesday tragedy in Lagos which resulted in death of at least 20 people, mostly pupils of a private school located within the three-storey building that collapsed at Massey Street, Ita-Faaji area of the state, efforts began on Friday to forestall a recurrence by pulling down defective buildings in the state.

What is considered the most prominent of the response from the state government following the conclusion of the rescue-and-evacuation exercise is the commencement of the demolition exercise around the area of the tragedy, which the Lagos State Building Control Agency (LASBCA) vowed would be total.

Speaking on Friday, the General Manager of the LASBCA, Mr Lekan Shodeinde, disclosed that about 180 houses had been marked for demolition in the course of the exercise.

Agencies of the state government got out of the usual official lethargy to save lives that are on the periphery of another tragedy by first shutting down schools housed in decrepit buildings on the Island axis of the state where old, distressed buildings are believed to be more prominent.

Earlier on Friday, the state Ministry of Health, through the commissioner, Jide Idris, officially put the fatality figure at 20, adding that 45 survivors were taken in for treatment.

According to Idris, as of Friday morning, 14 children and four adults were still receiving treatment at Lagos Island for varying degrees of injury.

The Ministry of Education also shut down 45 unapproved schools and sent the students home. It remains to be seen what fate awaits the affected students.

The LASBCA boss, Shodeinde, said about 20 distressed buildings were billed to be brought down on Friday but the agency pulled down only three buildings as of close of work on the first day of the demolition exercise, fuelling again, the usual skepticism toward similar promises in the past to totally rid the state of distressed and dangerous buildings.

While the agency’s task force began with the demolition exercise with the pulling down of a three-storey building on 60A, Freeman Street, Epetedo, LASBCA said the property owners of the marked buildings had been served several notices dating back to 2013, which shows that its efficiency in the area of enforcement has always been suspect.

Saturday Tribune observed a couple of other buildings that had been readied for demolition on Evans Street and one at 18, Smith Street, Lagos Island.

Day the devil drank water

Wednesday, March 13, 2019, started like any other day for students of Ohen Nursery and Primary School and other residents of the ill-fated three-storey building.

The students who occupied the pent-floor were in class receiving lesson while some of the residents were indoors when the building suddenly caved in around 10.00 a.m., leaving behind death, sorrow, blood and pains.

As of Friday, the official casualty figure stood at 64 – twenty dead while the rest are survivors who are still receiving medical attention in various hospitals across the state.

Saturday Tribune gathered that the casualty figure would have been higher if senior students from the school, which had a population of about 145, excluding teachers) had not gone at the period for sporting activities at an open field somewhere outside the neighbourhood.

The atmosphere since then has been pensive at both the site of the crash and the hospitals where the survivors are receiving medical attention. On Friday, many were not willing to speak to journalists. The conditions of their loved ones and wounded infants were too frightening for them. It was lamentation all through.

Some families, especially parents, could not find appropriate words to describe the tragedy as some have more than one child affected.

Mr Muyideen Akinshina, for example, has three children in the low-income school. He lost one, Aliyah. Another one, Mujidat, also a girl, was still missing as of Thursday, 24 hours after the incident while only Abdullai, a two-year-old boy and the last born, survived with injury.

Despite his bad psychological shape, he expressed his belief in God for quick and total recovery of his hospitalised boy and was optimistic of seeing his missing daughter alive.

Two children whose parent lives in an adjascent building to the scene were also involved.  Their names were given simply as Basit and Ayomide.

According to the residents, Basit was rescued around 4.00 p.m. on Wednesday but died shortly afterwards at the hospital where she was rushed to alongside Ayomide and others.

A resident who identified herself simply as Iya Segun told Saturday Tribune amidst sobs that “we thought Basit would make it but he didn’t. It is a painful loss to all of us in this house. And watching one’s children in excruciating pains is also an experience no parent would ever pray for.”

Similarly, a mother, who preferred to be known simply as Yetunde has one son involved. She told Saturday Tribune that she was told of the incident by a co-resident on phone around 2.00 p.m.

“That was how I rushed down to the Island and I was shocked to see a sea of heads at the scene trying to rescue the trapped victims including my son. I was scared but my boy was rescued alive and since then, I have been here in the hospital with him,” she said.

Yetunde’s eight years old son was injured in his legs. “The rubble collapsed on them but the doctor has assured me that he would get well before long because he is a young boy,” the distraught mother said.

For Mrs Nosifat Adejumo, her younger sister is the one who is directly affected by the accident. Her sister’s son, Muburak, nine, sustained head injury and had been taken to Ikorodu General Hospital to receive medical attention.

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The world mourns

Rescue operations have been concluded since Thursday around 11.00 a.m. This invariably means there is no more victim expected in the rubble. The Lagos State Emergency Management Agency (LASEMA) declared the operations concluded.

The General Manager of the agency, Mr Tiamiyui Adesina, after announcing the completion of the exercise, said what remained was to clear the rubble out of the site.

The state governor, Mr Akinwumi Ambode and the governor-elect, Mr Babajide Sanwo-Olu, had visited the scene and the survivors in the hospitals separately on Wednesday and Thursday, respectively. They expressed sadness over the incident and asked God to comfort the bereaved families and grant those injured quick healing.

They didn’t end it there. They promised to ensure that all the distressed buildings not only in Lagos Island but across the state would be pulled down and no new substandard one would surface again anywhere in the state to prevent building collapse recurrence.

President Muhammadu Buhari and his opponent in the last presidential election, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, the United States embassy in Nigeria, many governors and other eminent personalities in and outside the country have also expressed shock over the incident and commiserated with families of the dead as they wished the survivors speedy recovery.

Crooked enforcers

Many people, especially in the neighbourhood of the collapsed building, are angry over the tragdy. They expressed a strong belief that the incident was an avoidable one had the right things been done by those entrusted with public trust.

Lagos Island, for example, is the historic heart of the Lagos metropolis and the state is not only home to an estimated 20 million people but also home to the nation’s commerce, while the Island is also the central business district of the state. As there are many tall buildings, there are also many defective ones, especially within the residential part of the area. Many of them were originally built as bungalows or one-storey buildings but later upgraded to high-rise ones, considering that rent is hot cake in the area. And as a result of this alteration which is often done by quacks, building collapse is common in the axis.

In Lagos and elsewhere in the country, people flout building regulations at will. While some put the blame of the non-implementation of the policies at the door of the government and its agencies, others believe that both property owners and developers only consider the money they will make and not safety in putting up the buildings which mostly serve residential and commercial purposes.

The collapsed building, for example, was reportedly marked three times for demolition by the government but the owner and developers allegedly succeeded in suppressing the implementation.

A resident who gave his name simply as Samuel and a young lady, Olabimpe Olawale, confirmed this to Saturday Tribune. They said the building had long been defective and marked for demolition but the agency that was supposed to carry out the assignment spared the structure.

Mr Tajudeen Onigemo, a trader, who has lived all his life in the Ita-Faji neighbourhood, also bemoaned the situation with a call on the government to do the needful and prevent further “waste” of lives and property from building collapse on the Island and other parts of the state.

Mr Kunle Awobodu, immediate past president, Building Collapse Prevention Guild, a civil society group, shed light on how developers and property owners cut corners at the expense of safety while putting up structures.

According to him, developers are businessmen and women who are mostly interested in profit-making and because of that, they don’t give their building projects to professionals but quacks in order to make excess profit.

“Why it is like that is because developers have a time-frame, say, 15 or 20 years, to enjoy their investment after which they must hand the buildings over to the owners,” he explained to Saturday Tribune.

Awobodu, who is also the current First Vice-President, Nigerian Institute of Builders, a professional body, added that “because of such development and because the property owners have no money to finance their projects, they prefer to patronise quacks who will deliver substandard structures to them.”

Professionals caution govt

Reacting to the demolition exercise embarked upon by the state government on Friday, Awobodu said the demolition, despite being a welcome development, was a panicky approach that might be counterproductive.

According to him, the administration of the immediate past governor of the state, Babatunde Fashola, had done the needful by identifying buildings that were structurally defective.

“However, it’s gratifying that the current administration is now waking up to its responsibility, albeit, overdue. But the truth of the matter is that the action is  a pointer to the seriousness of government that it will no longer be businesses as usual,” Awobodu said.

He said he wasn’t comfortable with the decision to demolish 180 houses this month alone without letting the public know its relocation plans for the affected occupants.

“For example, we may have some of the property owners to have approval for conversion to change the existing structures for another use. How is the government going to compensate such people?

“No matter what, the government must carry out the demolition exercise within the ambit of the law. You can’t just wake up and set caterpillars to continue pulling down occupied buildings without alternative places of abode for the displaced residents, even if it is for a short duration,” argued Awobodu, who said BCPG is ready to offer professional advice to the government.

“As a pressure group that comprises professionals in the building environment, we have been giving advice for a long time and we are willing to continue to do so, provided the government seeks such advice,” he said.

Another concerned professional, Dr Dele Adejobi, while applauding the commencement of the demolition of defective buildings, called for restraint in carrying out the exercise.

According to Adejobi, if the government wants to go the whole hog in carrying out the exercise, not less than 1,000 houses will need to give way.

“Starting from the Lagos Mainland, particularly Ebute Metta, a location notorious for defective buildings, to Isale Eko on the Island, many people will be displaced and this will create more problems than expected. So, my advice for the government is to make adequate provision for the would-be victims before embarking on a full-scale demolition exercise which, to me, is a reactionary measure,” Adejobi said.

However, against the backdrop of this current tragedy which is getting the world mourning with the state, the government’s tough-talk this time appears set to deliver the real deal. But the traumatised public is skeptical. Only time will tell which side will be proved right.