By Maduka Nweke, [email protected], 08034207064, 081
Some building experts have described the committee inaugurated to implement reports on Ikoyi building collapse by the Lagos State, Mr Babajide Sanwo-Olu, as mere jamboree. They believe that the committee was not necessary because the system has already been polluted.
Speaking to PropertyMart, Dr. Ikenna Okechi, a property developer said if government likes, let it inaugurate 10 committees and write 10 reports, we shall continue to have the same problems.
According to him,”The moment government officials come to site of construction and mark whatever they like, the developer will only settle them and continue whatever they are doing. That finishes it because the time they will visit the site will be when the building collapses”.
In the same way, Mr. Abubakar Tanko, another developer based in Abuja said, until the system is purged and the bad eggs ejected, we would continue to be traumatised by menace of building collapse in the country,”he said.
After the Ikoyi building collapsed , claiming many lives last year, the Lagos State government only inaugurated a four-member committee to implement the report just this January. The governor constituted the committee at the Lagos House, Ikeja, after receiving the report of the Panel of Inquiry on what caused the structure to collapse on November 1, 2021.
He said that the setting up of the committee was a first step to the implementation of the report submitted by the panel. According to him, the four-member committee is led by the state Commissioner for Special Duties, Mr Tayo Bamgbose-Martins.
Other members are: the Head of Service, Mr Hakeem Muri-Okunola, the Commissioner for Justice, Mr Moyosore Onigbanjo (SAN) and his Agriculture counterpart, Ms Abisola Olusanya. The governor said the committee would bring forward a report to be considered by the Lagos State Executive Council. He commended the members of the Toyin Ayinde-led panel for their commitment and quick response to the assignment given to them by the state government.
”Let me on behalf of the people and the government of Lagos State first acknowledge the very difficult task that has been passed on to you and the commitments and the quick response that each and every one of you gave to the assignment. We know that you all have been chosen from different professional backgrounds but you were indeed ready to serve the people for this very important assignment.
”Let me, therefore, commend and thank you for that exercise. I will be constituting a four-man committee almost immediately that will read through the report and I am giving them the end of next week to get back to the State Executive Council,” Sanwo-Olu said.
The chairman of the panel, Mr Toyin Ayinde, is the President of the Nigerian Institute of Town Planners (NITP). Other members are a structural engineer, Dr. Akintilo Idris, Yinka Ogundairo; Mr Godfrey Godfrey; a real estate lawyer, Mrs Bunmi Ibrahim; and a lawyer, Ekundayo Onajobi, served as the secretary.
Speaking earlier, Ayinde expressed hope that the findings and recommendations of the panel’s report would be implemented by the government, to bring a lasting solution to incidents of building collapse, not only in Lagos State but nationally.
Ayinde said that the panel spent approximately six weeks on the assignment and submitted the report, as well as electronic recordings of all the sections and videos of proceedings in a hard drive to the Lagos State Attorney-General and Commissi9ner for Justice.
He said that the panel visited the project site for a general assessment, coordinated the activities of the consultants who conducted tests on the site, received and reviewed documents from relevant MDAs and conducted 35 interviews.
According to him, the panel interviewed 91 persons, requested and received 21 memoranda and accessed the home of the late CEO of Fourscore Heights Ltd., Mr Olufemi Osibono, with a view to gathering useful documents.