The Lagos State Government has explained that the demolition of 13 residential buildings on Rockview Street, Ajao Estate was necessary because they were illegally constructed along fuel pipelines.
The houses, located near the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, were built without proper planning permits. Gbolahan Oki, the General Manager of the Lagos State Building Control Agency (LASBCA), disclosed this during a press briefing at the weekend.
Oki noted that the buildings lacked the required approvals and were constructed in restricted airport areas and around aviation fuel pipelines, which posed a potential fire hazard that could result in loss of lives and properties.
He further stated that the builders did not possess the necessary documents or approvals for construction in that area, and that the structures were erected with a clear disregard for extant laws.
He said, “Nobody in his right thinking mind will go and buy a plot on a pipeline and build on the pipeline.”
Accounting to him, consultations and communications have been made with enough time off over eight years, 2016, given to the occupants of the affected buildings to evacuate the structures.
Oki decried the spate of building collapse in Lagos, blaming it on basically, “attitudinal problem.”
He described the buildings on the land as a “National risk” to the airport being “extremely close”, stressing that “no life of a Nigerian is worth being lost to the dangers that the citing of the buildings pose.”