On Wednesday, the Lagos State Government began the process of demolishing buildings on Banana Island that had not been approved and were operating illegally.
After visiting the island where a seven-story building under construction collapsed the previous week, Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu issued the directive that led to this development. He also visited the island.
Buildings on Banana Island that do not comply with the Lagos State Urban and Regional Planning Development Law (2019) began to be demolished on Wednesday by officials from the Lagos State Building Control Agency (LASBCA) and the Lagos State Environmental and Special Offences Unit (Task Force).
Both the General Manager of LASBCA, Gbolahan Oki, and the Task Force Chairman, CSP Shola Jejeloye, were responsible for the leadership of the demolition team.
Sanwo-Olu condemned the illegal activities of developers who are hiding their identities under the guise of agencies of the Federal Government in order to build illegal structures on Banana Island in the Ikoyi area of the State during his visit to the island on the previous Saturday.
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He attributed the recent collapse of the seven-story building on First Avenue, Banana Island, to the “reckless” operations of some developers who hid behind the pretense that Federal Government agencies had issued approvals in order to con unsuspecting property owners. He said this was done in order to hoodwink the property owners.
The governor has stated that his administration will no longer tolerate the activities of greedy developers who illegally reclaim land from water in connivance with some government agencies. These activities have been going on for quite some time.
After voicing his displeasure with illegal structures in Banana Island, Sanwo-Olu issued an order for the immediate demolition and sealing of a large number of completed and uncompleted buildings with various building infractions and those that were not granted appropriate approvals for construction by government agencies. Sanwo-Olu’s order also included buildings that had not been granted appropriate approvals for construction.
The order given by the Governor was immediately carried out by officials from the Lagos State Building Control Agency, who immediately marked the affected buildings as being scheduled for demolition.
Over 10 buildings have been earmarked for demolition.
