BREAKING: Lagos Commences Manual Demolition Of Marked Buildings

The Lagos State Building Control Agency [LASBCA] has commenced the demolition of defective buildings marked for destruction within Lagos Island Friday morning.

According to the General Manager of LASBCA, Mr Lekan Shodeinde, about 180 houses will be demolished in the exercise.

The agency began the exercise with the demolition of a three-storey building on 60A Freeman Street, Epetedo.

The demolition is in reaction of the building collapse in Lagos Island, which killed many people, including pupils and several others.

The building caved in on March 13, killing about nine people, while about 50 were rescued.

A house in Lagos Island under demolition

The agency said 20 building will be demolished today, Friday.

Governor Akinwunmi Ambode, had during an assessment tour to the site, vowed to demolish all illegal school buildings in the area.

He made the pledge on Wednesday while responding to concerns raised by some residents on the increase in illegal schools when he visited the scene of a building collapse.

The building said to be 30 years caved in at about 9:45 am, raising fears for the lives of the hundreds of inhabitants, mostly children who are pupils of a school located on the top floor of the building.

“So far, from what I have been briefed, we have rescued about 25 people and some are already dead but we were earlier informed that it was a school, the building is not technically a school, it is a residential building that was actually accommodating an illegal school so to speak on the second floor.

“Like we have said, we have been carrying out a lot of integrity tests on the buildings in this neighborhood and as you can see, some of them have been marked for demolition but we get resistance from landlords but we must continue to save lives and we would intensify our efforts to see that those have failed our integrity test, we would ensure that they are quickly evacuated and we bring the structures down,” he said.