Several buildings in some prime areas in Ikeja, Lagos were on Saturday sealed by officials of the Lagos State Building Control Agency, LASBCA, for breaching the building control laws of the state.
Other structures that have changed the residential approval granted to them to commercial have been served notices to present their documents within 48 hours for regularisation.
The action is sequel to incidents of series of collapsed buildings in recent time across the state due to illegal development and using of substandard materials by developers.
Engr. Abiola Kosegbe, General Manager, LASBCA, led the enforcement team to some prime areas in Ikeja were structures that violated the building control laws were sealed.
On Oduduwa Way, three massive structures on No. 67 were sealed for not having building permit. Also, a two-storey building on No 30 was shut, with the workers on site driven out for not having building permit.
Four other structures on the same Way were served notices for suspected conversion of residential approval granted to commercial purpose.
On 28 Sobo Arobiodu, Ikeja GRA, massive structures being developed were also sealed with the owner asked to produce building documents. Structures were also shut at Opebi area of Ikeja.
LASBCA GM, Kosegbe, lamented that developers had been flouting the laws of the state with impunity and vowed that government would enforce the law in order to mitigate incidence of collapsed buildings in the state.
She said government had decided to monitor building development across the state even on weekends and public holidays as it had come to the notice of government that illegal developments were done on such days.
Kosegbe said the building on 67 Oduduwa Way had been served stop work notice on several occasions, but that the developer kept working, which informed the sealing of the structures in the compound.
โGovernment has zero tolerance to collapsed buildings. People must build right. Whenever we come on site for inspection, we ask for building permits, drawing, notice board and professionals on site,โ she said.
She added that any construction without a project board constituted an offence, saying that even after a developer had gotten a building permit, he or she must notify LASBCA of plan to move to site for proper monitoring.
Kosegbe appealed to Lagosians to ensure that they obtain the necessary permits before going to site and that they must make use of professionals to erect their structures.
