Police Barracks Building In Lagos Falling –Lagos State Building Control Agency Raises Alarm

                       

In order to forestall another building collapse in the metropolis, the General Manager of the Lagos State Building Control Agency (LASBCA), Mrs Abimbola Animashaun, has raised the alarm over the dilapidated police barracks in Lagos, saying that “they are falling.”

While decrying the sorry state of the barracks while briefing journalists about the activities of the agency in Lagos at the weekend, the general manager said that some of the columns and walls of the police buildings are already fallen apart.
To be specific, she mentioned that Ikeja and Iponri Police Barracks have dilapidated, saying that most officers living there ought to have been evacuated.
She disclosed that the agency, after taking critical look at the situation, has done a report on the dilapidating nature of the barracks and has sent notice to the authority in-charge. She said: “The barracks are dilapidated, people there ought to have been moved; some of the buildings are even collapsing and they keep on patching them; we have done our report because we have already been there. In Iponri and Ikaja barracks, the columns are apart. We have sent to the Federal Government.”
LASBCA warned that if any building collapses in Lagos, the agency has every responsibility to take action. Animashaun disclosed many new initiatives the agency is considering, which include the introduction of electronic payment, engagement of approved building inspectors, introduction of special course for building collapse offences and many others.
On the engagement of approved inspectors to monitor construction sites across the state, she said that such would not come as individuals but firms under the professionals bodies in the built environment.
She said that they would be scrutinised and must be registered with the agency before the selection process in order to give room for LASBCA to be able to oversee them and their activities. She added that the approved inspectors would only monitor places very close to them in order to allow them do the job properly. In order to forestall compromise among the inspectors, she said: “We will do our own thorough job too.
We will be getting report from them. Our head of departments will go round too to check what the inspectors have done. If they are not doing it well, we will remove them.” On the exact time for the engagement of these inspectors, the LASBCA boss said that it would commence “when we have building regulation in place. The building regulation must be in operation and we are working on that. People are already coming up.
They must be members of the Nigerian Institute of Architects, Nigerian Institute of Building and Nigerian Society of Engineers. We are picking firms and not individuals.” She also disclosed that the agency is planning to put in place what she described as one-stop-shop, which will encompass laboratory where people can come and verify and confirm the result of their test is not compromised.
“We are planning to have that one-stop shop for anyone that wants to build and have nothing about it. We need to come here for help,” she said. Director, Head, Inspectorate (Quality Control Department) of the agency, Mr Ayo Shodehinde, an engineer, explained the rudiments of getting approvals of the agency in all stages of building construction, citing the importance of structural test when crack is noticed in a building.

Dayo Ayeyemi wrote for New Telegraph