Two feared injured as another building collapses

Two persons were yesterday feared injured as another three-storey building collapsed on Lagos Island.

The incident, which occurred at 50, Kakawa Street, has brought to four the number of buildings that had collapsed in the area since the March 13 disaster.

It was gathered that the latest collapsed building had been marked for demolition for a long time, but officials of the Lagos State Building Control Agency (LABSCA) did nothing to pull it down, until it caved in yesterday afternoon.

Those who sustained injuries, The Nation learnt, were residents of a nearby building the collapsed structure fell on. Another three-storey building situated at 47/49, Odunlami Street, behind the collapsed one, was also affected.

At the time our correspondent visited the scene, the General Manager, Lagos State Emergency Management Agency (LASEMA), Adesina Tiamiyu, Rapid Response Squad (RRS) policemen, fire service officials and LABSCA officials were at the place, preparing to pull down the remains of the buildings.

Lagos State Government yesterday urged occupants of marked distressed buildings to vacate them before the arrival of the demolition team of LASBCA.

Read also: Photos of Lagos building collapse

Physical Planning and Urban Development Commissioner Prince Rotimi Ogunleye made the appeal, just as a distressed three-storey building at 50, Kakawa Street, Lagos Island, collapsed.

The government said there was no casualty.

Ogunleye said: “The building in question had been identified as distressed by the officers of the LASBCA and all the necessary statutory notices had been duly served. It was one of the defective structures marked for demolition by the agency.

“Fortunately, occupants had been evacuated before the incident occurred. Immediately, the Lagos State Rescue Team and LASBCA were alerted and they moved to site promptly to check all adjoining buildings so as to evacuate the occupants, to avoid any further hazards.”

Those displaced in the ongoing demolition of defective/distressed buildings in the state will be resettled at the Igando Resettlement Camp, Commissioner for Information and Strategy Kehinde Bamigbetan said yesterday.

The camp comprises five hostels, with 22 rooms and four double-bunk each. Each room can accommodate eight persons.

It has a kitchen, a dining hall, a general hall for recreation, a three-ward medical facility, 10 toilets and bathrooms for each hostel, workers’ accommodation, facilities for persons living with disabilities and security post, among others.

Speaking during a media tour of the camp, Bamigbetan said it was ready to take 500 displaced persons from today.

Their resettlement, he said, was part of the government’s plan to mitigate the effect of the loss of their homes.

Tiamiyu said the camp would be opened for three months in the first instance, after which the government would review the need for an extension.

The camp, he said, would work with the Igando General Hospital on medical referrals, adding that the health team for the camp would arrive today.