429 Houses shut, 8 others demolished In Lagos

To stem the tide of collapsed buildings in the state, Governor Babatunde Fashola of Lagos State has revealed that 429 buildings were shut while eight others were demolished across the state, western Nigeria.

Fashola spoke at the 2,400 days celebration of his administration in office, held in the three senatorial districts of the state on Monday.

In Agege, the governor said the buildings were shut for not meeting up with the physical planning laws and standard. He disclosed that 838 buildings were also pasted with stop work notice in the last 100 days.

According to Fashola, who was represented by the Attorney-General and Commissioner for Justice, Ade Ipaye, 110 cases were listed for prosecution by the Lagos State Building Control Agency for various offences, including building insurance/general contractor’s all risk, out of which 49 of such cases were decided while 45 cases were still pending.

“During the period under review, 622 applications for building approvals were received. Out of these, 490 were approved for residential, 58 for commercial, 7 for institutional, 18 for renovation and 46 for demolition permit.

“Five collapsed buildings were recorded as a result of fire incidence while one collapsed as a result of sub-standard materials used,” he disclosed.

He said the Ministry of Science and Technology has, in the last 100 days, expanded the scope of the state’s Control and Command Centre to accommodate more calls from citizens in distress or needing emergency attention from any part of the state. The commissioner explained that the Control and Command Centre was the place where the 211, 767 free toll calls were received and acted upon.

On those making frivolous calls, Fashola advised such people to desist from the act, pointing out that by making such calls, they delayed others who needed to make emergency calls. “The lines are made strictly for emergency purposes; when there is fire, motor accidents or crime, that is the time to call,” he added.

On the Lagos State Home Ownership Scheme (Lagos HOMS), the governor disclosed that allocation of houses to beneficiaries on mortgage basis would begin in January, 2014.

The governor, who was represented by the Commissioner for Housing, Mr. Bosun Jeje, at the Teslim Balogun Stadium venue of the Lagos Central Senatorial District session of the event, said over 5,000 houses were now ready for allocation under the scheme, adding that there were many other housing estates still under construction across the state.

Fashola said he recently approved another housing estate in Ilubirin that would contain 1,259 housing units and another one at Ibeshe in Ikorodu Local Government Area.

He noted that with the frequency by which the estates came up, it would not be easy to put a permanent figure on the number of houses that would be ready before the take off of the scheme, but added, “the houses are not limited but we have them coming up every day.

“One of the campaign promises that we made at that time was that we would address the problem of housing in Lagos State. We knew it was a challenge and we promised that we would address it and we have started addressing it.”

Giving reasons for the delay in the kickoff of the allocation, Fashola explained: “In actual fact, the allocation was meant to start this December but we are trying to have a sustainable programme, that is why it has not started. We want to make sure that everything that needs to be done must be done before we start the allocations.”