News

Banana Island Building Collapse: Seven Rescued As Lagos Alleges Structure Lacks Permit

Published

8 months ago

April 13, 2023

Eric

No fewer than seven persons were rescued from the rubble of a seven-storey building under construction that collapsed on Wednesday on First Avenue, in the Banana Island area of Ikoyi, Lagos State.

As of the time of filing this report, emergency responders, who stormed the scene for rescue operation, were said to still be searching for the whereabouts of a victim that had been trapped beneath the rubble of the collapsed structure.

Construction workers, according to The Punch, were performing their daily tasks in the building that had been under construction for months when it suddenly caved in around 4.58pm.

It was learnt that while some of the workers at the site escaped unhurt with some sustaining varying degrees of injury, some other workers, who were unlucky, got trapped beneath the rubble of the collapsed structure.

In a bid to rescue the trapped victims, some eyewitnesses, including construction workers at the site of adjoining buildings within the premises, raised the alarm and alerted relevant emergency agencies who mobilised to the scene to commence rescue operations.

Speaking with one of our correspondents, an eyewitness, who does not want his name mentioned in print for fear of victimisation, said the construction workers were on the sixth floor of the building attempting to lay the seventh floor when the tragedy struck.

He said, “As I speak with you, nobody has been confirmed dead and from the look of things, it is not certain that anybody will die. Only one victim is still trapped under the rubble of the collapsed structure and concerted efforts by emergency responders are ongoing to ensure that the person is rescued alive.

“As the rescue operation is ongoing, the emergency workers are confirming the number of people rescued in line with the registered number of people at the site and also with the involvement of the developers who are on the ground.

“At the site, three buildings were under construction and only one of the three buildings under construction collapsed. The workers were working on the sixth floor and were trying to lay the seventh floor when the building collapsed.”

PUNCH Metro gathered that the two other buildings under construction alongside the collapsed building are still intact but an integrity test would be conducted on the two buildings to prevent another collapse.

However, in a trending video showing moments shortly after the building caved in, eyewitnesses while lamenting over the development, were heard urging people to rush a rescued victim to the hospital for treatment.

The rescued victim, who was seen wailing after surviving the tragedy, said, “I have been going to work but this work is different. I thank God. Nah God I go dey call, I thank God oo.”

Reacting to the development, the General Manager, Lagos State Fire Service, Margaret Adeseye, said no fewer than seven persons were rescued with varying degrees of injury, adding that one person was still trapped.

Adeseye said, “The seven-storey building that collapsed is one out of the three high-rise structures under construction. The other two nine-storey are still standing.

“Seven persons were rescued alive with varying degrees of injury, while one person is still trapped as search-and-rescue operations are still ongoing until ground zero is achieved. An investigation has been ordered to ascertain the cause of the collapse.”

Meanwhile, the Lagos State Ministry of Physical Planning and Urban Development, in a statement posted on its verified Facebook page, said no approval was given for the construction of the collapsed structure.

The ministry’s Deputy Director, Public Affairs, Mukaila Sanusi, in the statement, said an investigation had commenced into the incident.

The statement read, “An unapproved seven-floor building under construction has collapsed in Banana Island, Lagos State, this evening.

“Few who sustained injuries are being treated. There is no fatality. This unfortunate incident happened while casting was being done.

“The Commissioner for Physical Planning and Urban Development, Tayo Bamgbose-Martins, was immediately on site to assess the situation and flag off the investigation. We ask members of the public to remain calm and expect further information from the ministry as we know more.”

However, the building that collapsed in Banana Island on Wednesday adds to a long list of building collapses recorded in the state in recent times.

On January 19, a storey building located at number 12 Aromire Avenue, opposite Dominos Pizza, Ikeja, suddenly collapsed around 6.45pm, killing one person in the process.

According to documents obtained from the Building Collapse Prevention Guild, Lagos State has recorded a staggering 115 building collapses in the past 10 years. In 2022 alone, the state recorded 20 incidents of building collapse.

Reacting, the pioneer President of the Building Collapse Prevention Guild, Kunle Awobodu, said the guild had commenced its own inquiry to ascertain the cause of the collapse.

He said, “Banana Island has a very high value when it comes to property development in the whole of Nigeria. It is a place where nobody anticipated substandard construction or envisaged substandard construction. This is the climax of the building collapse embarrassment, because of that peculiar location. That is our concern.”

Also commenting on the development, the Treasurer, Nigerian Institute of Builders, Lagos State, Philips Ayotunde, said lack of government oversight was responsible for the continuous building collapse episodes recorded in the state.

Philips said, “The government is not ready to do the right thing. If you say a building does not have approval, and yet, you see them commence work. They get to the first, second, third, fourth, all the way to the seventh floor, for heaven’s sake, a seven-storey building will not grow overnight. They have LASBCA officials in every district. What are the officials in that place doing?

“The government cannot exonerate themselves. Where were they when the building was under construction? It is a national shame. I have been getting messages from outside the country for the past hour. This is Banana Island we are talking about. Investors will lose confidence. Both local and international investors will begin to shy away from our real estate sector.”

The Punch

News

Lagos Bags Recognition As City with Global Worst Road Traffic

Published

13 hours ago

November 27, 2023

Eric

Traffic Index has released its annual report on global traffic congestion ranking for 2023 with Lagos State emerging as the city with the worst road traffic in the world.

Traffic Index is a web-based application built on top of the traffic layer within Google Maps.

The specified layer uses 4 colors to represent traffic congestion: green, orange, red, dark-red. The darker the color is, the more congestion can bee observed in that location.

Every 20 minutes, the web app saves an image for each tracked location, containing the traffic data reported by Google Maps.

After a couple of minutes, the images are analyzed, and the percentages of the 4 traffic colors are calculated.

The Traffic Index report, which contains only cities having at least five hundred thousand residents, revealed Lagos has the worst road traffic among all cities.

Riga, the capital and largest city of Latvia, came second on the list, followed by Tehran, the capital and largest city of Iran.

News

Gov. Umo Eno Floors Bassey Albert, Akan Udofia, Udoedehe at Appeal Court

Published

3 days ago

November 25, 2023

Eric

The Court of Appeal sitting in Lagos has dismissed the appeal filed by Senator Bassey Albert Akpan and his party, Young Progressives Party, Akanimo Udofia of the All Progressives Congress, APC and Senator John Akpanudoedehe of the New Nigerian Peoples Party,NNPP, challenging the election of Governor Umo Eno of the Peoples Democratic Party.

At separate judgements delivered on Friday in Lagos, the Appellate Court struck out the respective appeals by the three appellants, describing them as lacking in merit.

The court ruled that the appellants missed the point by arguing that since they were not parties in the case, the judgement on the certificate matter was not binding on them.

“The declaratory judgment of a competent court is a judgement in rem is binding on the whole world, and not only on those who were parties in the case,” the court stated

The Court faulted the abuse of judicial process by the Appellants in re-litigating a matter that was dispensed at the High Court, Appeal Court and Supreme Court in favour of the 2nd respondent Pastor Umo Eno Bassey.

“There was no forged certificate presented to INEC. It has already been held to be genuine by the supreme Court, so the issue is resolved against the appellant.”

Ruling further on the appeal by the YPP governorship candidate, the appellate court also faulted the inability of the appellants to summon witnesses who were at the elections as polling agents, to prove their case of elections irregularities.

The court was of the opinion that Bassey Albert and his party only depended on documentary evidences amounting to hearsay, to allege irregularities, without making efforts to bring those who witnessed and took part in the elections at the polling units.

On the local government collation agents that the YPP candidate paraded before the court, the court held that “it is possible to say that the evidence given by Bassey Albert’s witnesses amounted to drama scripts meant to entertain the gallery and not serious statements that could influence the emergence of a Governor.”

Noting further”In pleading a petition, you can’t compel a party to call a witness of your choice, the appellant could if they so wish call any witness. The petitioner must also tender all documents, electoral forms and witnesses who saw it all to prove the alleged illegalities and give life to the documents tendered”

The appeal court also dismissed the preliminary objection by Bassey Albert’s counsel, Tunde Falola, and ruled that the briefs filed by the respondents did not violate the Appeal Court practice direction.

Falola had raised objections, arguing that the briefs of argument by the respondents ran more than the number of pages stipulated by the court practice guidelines and should be rejected.

But the court dismissed the objection insisting that the extra pages did not constitute part of the briefs l, but were mere acknowledgment of authorities and addresses of parties.

The Court ruled that the burden of proof in the allegations that the name of the 2nd Respondent was not the same as the names on the 1981 and 1983 WAEC certificates, was on the Appellants, adding that they failed to establish the proof.Appeal Court Upholds Umo Eno’s election as Akwa Ibom Governor and then awarded a cost of N500,000 in favour of Governor Eno and the PDP .

Following the March 2023 election, INEC declared Umo Eno winner polling 356,348 votes to defeat his closest rival, Bassey Albert of the YPP who polled 136,262 votes.

Recall that the Akwa Ibom electoral petition tribunal had earlier affirmed the election of Umo Eno as the governor of the state.

In its judgement, the tribunal dismissed the petition marked EPT/AKW/GOV/01/2023 instituted by Albert Bassey and his party, the Young Progressives Party (YPP), which challenged the election of the Akwa Ibom state governor.

The unanimous judgement read by Adekunle Adeleye, who led the panel, held that the issue of Eno’s qualification had already been settled by the supreme court.

The tribunal held that the WAEC official summoned via a subpoena as PW10 authenticated the certificates, insisting that “WAEC did not disclaim the 1981 and 1983 WAEC certificates. Without a disclaimer by the issuing authority, the certificates remain valid,” the court held.

The court also held that “There is no legislation in Nigeria that a person’s name should be arranged in a particular order on a document.

“In the absence of any other person holding claims to the said 1981 and 1983 WAEC certificates, I hold that the certificates belong to the 2nd Respondent.

“Even the 1st petitioner himself told the court he was a victim of the same issue as three documents bearing his name tendered as exhibits before the tribunal carried different arrangements of his name, Albert Bassey, Akpan Bassey Albert and Bassey Albert Akpan. This is a case of a pot calling the kettle black.”

Summarily, the tribunal dismissed Bassey’s petition describing it as frivolous and baseless.

The tribunal had also dismissed the petition of the All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate, Akanimo Udofia.

Udofia sought the nullification of Eno’s election on the grounds that he presented forged documents to INEC, and also did not score the highest number of valid votes in the March 18, governorship poll.

Udofia also accused the 2nd respondent of being convicted by an Abuja magistrate court, hence not qualified to be fielded for elections.

However, the tribunal ruled that the allegations of substantial non-compliance with the electoral law in the conduct of the elections were not sufficiently proven by the petitioners in their case.

The panel also ruled that the magistrate court, in its judgment, nullified its earlier conviction of Eno and that once a judgment is nullified, it ceases to exist.

News

Court Grants Emefiele N300m Bail

Published

6 days ago

November 22, 2023

Eric

Justice Hamza Muazu of the Federal Capital Territory High Court Abuja, has granted the immediate past Governor of the Central Bank, Mr Godwin Emefiele, bail in the sum of N300 million and two sureties in like sum.

The sureties must have certificates of occupancy and titles of properties within the Maitama District.

Emefiele is mandated to deposit all his travel documents with the registrar of the court and must remain within the Abuja Municipal Council.

He is expected to remain in Kuje Correctional Centre pending when he meets the bail conditions.

Emefiele was absent Wednesday morning for the ruling on his bail application. His lawyer, Mr Mathew Burkaa, however, said it was normal, as he is already at the Kuje Correctional Centre.

This comes four months after the Federal High Court sitting in Lagos granted him bail in the sum of N20 million.