Following the collapse of a two-storey building that claimed the lives of five construction workers at Arowojobe Estate, in the Maryland area of Lagos State, the General Manager, Lagos State Building Control Agency, Gbolahan Oki, has banned people, particularly labourers from sleeping at construction sites in the state.
Oki gave the directive in a statement signed by the agency’s Director of the Public Affairs Unit, Olaoye Olusegun.
The statement read in part, “Henceforth, nobody should be found sleeping in any building under construction after the close of work, especially at night. LASBCA officials will be inspecting construction sites across the state, especially at night, to ensure that nobody is sleeping inside any building under construction.
“Construction period in the state remains from 7 am to 7 pm Monday to Saturday excluding Sundays. Henceforth, any property developer or owners who engage workers to carry out construction work on Sundays and beyond 7 pm on Monday to Saturday will have his or her property sealed indefinitely.”
Oki also directed property owners and developers to engage only professional structural, civil, mechanical, and electrical engineers and architects for their building projects in the state, adding that building project sites that failed to engage professionals would be sealed and possibly removed.
“This directive becomes necessary to safeguard the building construction industry and ensure that buildings in the state are safe, secure, and fit for habilitation,” the statement added.
On Thursday, several residents of Arowojobe Estate in the Maryland area of the state, were jolted awake by the sudden collapse of a building under construction in the area.
The two-storey building which is located on Wilson Mba Street on the estate reportedly collapsed around 3:49 am, trapping several construction workers who were asleep in it. It was gathered that the house was owned by a yet-to-be-identified woman and the construction workers at the site were hired from Ibadan, Oyo State.
Construction work at the site was said to have started earlier this year, and residents mentioned that the labourers had been working day and night when the building caved in and trapped them beneath the rubble.
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Following the collapse, emergency responderse from the Lagos State Emergency Management Agency, Lagos State Ambulance Service, and the National Emergency Management Agency stormed the scene to commence a search and rescue operation.
Several residents who gathered at the scene were reportedly horrified by the incident as an excavator by LASEMA was deployed to accelerate the rescue operations.
Two buildings adjoining the collapsed structure had been marked by the state agencies and would undergo integrity tests to ascertain their safety.
At another construction site not too far from the site of the incident, labourers were observed mixing cement and getting ready to erect a new structure.
One of the workers who declined to reveal his name for fear of victimisation, told our correspondent that the job done at the scene of the collapsed building was not up to standard.
He said, “Most of the labourers at that site were just looking for a way to survive; they were doing a shoddy job. We are also in this sector and we can tell. A bungalow should have been built there, not a two-storey structure. The work being done on that building was rubbish, now see what has happened.”
