The Lagos State Government is set to demolish 17 distressed buildings at Alaba International Market, Ojo area of the State this weekend to prevent their collapse.
Officials of the Lagos State Building Control Agency (LASBCA) escorted by the Lagos State Taskforce stormed the popular market on Friday to mark the buildings meant for demolition and inform their occupants to vacate the distressed buildings immediately.
Some of the shopping plazas marked for demolition by LASBCA are: G80 Alaba Rago road, Good Season Shopping Complex, the building on 840 Ojo Igbede and the structure behind Oba Oseni plaza, among others.
General Manager, LASBCA, Gbolahan Oki, told newsmen that the buildings would be demolished this weekend.
According to Oki, the purpose of the exercise was to mark the buildings and ensure that they were demolished between now and Monday.
He said LASBCA had been on top of the game telling owners of the affected properties to do the right thing.
“We have officers in those vicinity who have served them severally. Despite the facts that they were served, people don’t yield to the notices. We have been serving them notices since 2016 and when we came on board we served them too. What they do whenever we go there is to send area boys to disrupt our services.
“About a month ago, we made a list of 349 distressed buildings. The properties marked are supposed to be on the list and due to the fact that they harass our staff, they are not captured on the list. They won’t allow our staff to do their jobs and that is why they are not on the list.
“So, we had to call the task force to enforce what we are supposed to do and these notices have been served them since last year and apart from that, these properties have been served since 2016. If you look at 2016 till date, that is seven years and if you look at somebody who wants to be responsible in that environment, it is enough time for them want to do the right thing, seven years is enough to rehabilitate the buildings.
“We have taken the bull by the horns and all those distressed buildings are going to go between now and Monday and that is why we called on the taskforce to be our guardian angel to provide security to make sure that the properties are brought down to save lives. That is what is paramount to the government. We have given them more than enough notices to comply and we will do the right thing,” Oki stated.
Oki added that those distressed buildings were not supposed to be in existence, saying that government did not need to give human face to what would cause disaster to the state and the people.
“We are telling them to save their lives by moving away and if the buildings come down, they will blame government. We are not going to stop at the 17 distressed buildings, but we are moving to other localities, we have several buildings to be demolished, about 400,” he said.
