The Lagos State Government has accepted 26 recommendations of the Toyin Ayinde-led panel that investigated the collapse of a 21-storey building in the Ikoyi area of the state.
The Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu-led administration also rejected two of the 28 recommendations of the panel.
In a White Paper, according to The Punch report, the state government agreed with the recommendation of the panel that the existing two 15-storey buildings still standing at the site of the collapse on Gerrard Road in Ikoyi should be demolished and the land forfeited to the state government.
The state government also accepted the recommendation of the panel that the Developer of the collapsed property, Fourscore Heights Limited, be prosecuted because of the loss of lives at the rubble.
The collapsed 21-floor skyscraper, owned by Fourscore Heights Limited, trapped over 50 persons, including the firm’s Managing Director, Femi Osibona; his friend, a United States of America-based Nigerian businessman, Wale Bob-Oseni; his personal assistant, Oyinye Enekwe, and clients.
About 44 persons were said to have died as a result of the incident, nine survivors were rescued from the rubble of the collapsed building, while some artisans working in the building before it collapsed are still missing.
Days after the ill-fated incident, while rescue operations were still ongoing, Governor Sanwo-Olu declared that he had set up a panel to investigate the collapse of the building.
On January 5, 2022, the Ayinde-led panel submitted its report to the governor at the Lagos House, Ikeja. The chairman of the panel (Ayinde) said the panel spent approximately six weeks on the assignment and submitted the report as well as electronic recordings of all the sections and videos of proceedings in a hard drive to the Lagos State Attorney-General, Moyosore Onigbanjo (SAN).
Ayinde said his panel visited the project site for a general assessment, coordinated the activities of the consultants who conducted tests on the site, received and reviewed documents from relevant ministries, departments and agencies and conducted 35 interviews.
He said the panel interrogated 91 persons, requested and received 21 memoranda and accessed the home of the late Chief Executive Officer of Fourscore Heights Limited, Olufemi Osibona, with a view to gathering useful documents.
Upon the receipt of the panel’s report Sanwo-Olu set up a four-man committee led by the Commissioner for Special Duties, Tayo Bamgbose-Martins, to produce a White Paper on the panel’s recommendation.
The Bamgbose-Martins-led committee subsequently tendered its White Paper which is the position of the state government on the collapsed building. While the state government accepted 26 of the 28 recommendations of the panel, it rejected two.
The Punch
