Rage of bulldozers

Job Osazuwa

Thousands of residents of Lagos Island Local Government Area of Lagos State have been forced out of their homes and shops. But it is for their own safety.

The houses they lived or did business in on Lagos Island are now being demolished by the state government.

Officials of the Lagos State Building Control Agency (LASBCA) had earlier marked many of the defective buildings for demolition, with some dating back to 2013.

But the building that collapsed on March 13 at Massey Street in the area, which claimed 20 lives, including primary school pupils, seemed to have suddenly awoken officials of LASBCA and other relevant agencies from their slumber. 

Nigerians were united in expressing emotions, mourning and empathising with the bereaved families of the innocent children who went to seek knowledge but lost their lives as a result of the irresponsibility of some house owners and government officials.

After the incident, it took the agency less than 48 hours to assemble its men, who swung into action and began to descend on the different defective buildings in the area that failed the integrity test. 

The state government, through LASBCA, had on Friday begun the demolition of distressed buildings reportedly on Lagos Island on the orders of Governor Akinwunmi Ambode.

When Daily Sun visited some of the affected houses, it was a mixed reaction from the people. Many heaped praises on the state government for quickly rising to the occasion to do the needful, while other residents lambasted the government for waiting for too long before doing what it ought to have done to avert the mishap that claimed lives.

There was a sort of apprehension on the faces of many residents, including traders, as the officials move from street to street doing their job. Some traders could not help but ask if their own buildings were safe from danger.

One of the traders, a cosmetics dealer close to Tinubu Square, shouted: “You people should tell us if you want to demolish our shops so that we can pack our goods. Not that you will come early morning on Sunday when we are in the church and destroy everything. I value my life, I also value my goods.”

And his colleagues spontaneously burst into laughter.

The reporter, while on the visit to some of the distressed buildings on Saturday, alighted at Evans Street from the motorcycle he boarded from Obalende Bus Stop. One of the landlords on the street, who identified himself as Okunnowo, let out a long sigh when he was approached for an interview. 

“The state government, especially the LASBCA, has disappointed us in no small measure. Well, it is Nigerians’ style of responding to issues. The government was aware that these buildings, including the one that killed those innocent children – the school pupils – were not even fit to be occupied by animals, let alone human beings. But they decided to look the other way. 

“It is painful to me as a Nigerian that those children died for no fault of theirs. They died because they were born as Nigerians where the government at all levels understands better how to sympathise and mourn instead of preventing what would result in a tragedy.

“The demolition they are doing now is good, at least to prevent other looming disasters. But if it was done months or years ago, those children would have been saved. They died in such a painful manner,” the landlord, who appeared to be in his early 70s, said.

At Apatira Street, off Massey Street, a two-storey building was pulled down. The house, sandwiched between other seemingly dilapidated buildings, was built with mini blocks made of clay sand and roofed with zinc sheets. Indeed, the building looked like it might have been there for close to a century. 

One of the occupants in the marked buildings, Solo Idu, said: “It is good that the government is taking this action. Though I will be affected because my rent is still valid for about three months, I must appreciate government’s intervention. It is only the living that can think about a better tomorrow. Some of the developers here are really selfish. They are after money and, because the demand is high, they don’t care about people’s safety. About 50 per cent of the houses in Oluchi, Evans Street and other places around here should be checked again by LASBCA and you will be shocked by the revelation at the end of the day,” he said.

At Smith Street, off Evans Street, a two-storey building was also demolished. The former occupants gathered in groups, discussing in hushed tones. A woman who owned one of the demolished shops in the house asked in Yoruba language, where the government expected her to continue her trade.

Having received the news that the state government had commenced the demolition of the marked buildings, many of the owners and tenants in most of the affected houses were seen hurriedly packing out their property and wares. Some started removing valuable building materials from the building before the officials got there.

At Oluchi Street, two houses, comprising many flats and shops, were also marked for demolition. One of them had been completely deserted by the occupants but many tenants, who looked unperturbed, were still in the second building. Many of them were sighted cooking and washing their clothes in front of the distressed house. 

When the reporter asked one of the residents in a marked house in the area why she had not yet packed out of the house, she said the inscription was already there before she rented the place.

“What concerns you with the building? Are you the one living here? I am only occupying one room here and I will not be here forever. If they come tomorrow to scatter the place, I will leave. But they have been saying they would come to demolish it for more than one year now, nothing has happened. It will not take me more than 30 minutes to pack my property from my room. So, I am waiting for them,” she said.

Another occupant of the house, a shop owner, Obinna Ebere, said he still had six months before his rent would expire in the house.

“The landlord is not willing to refund any money. Where do I get another capital to rent a new place with agent and agreement-commission fees? I’m praying that they don’t get here now until my money expires,” he said.

At the already demolished sites, those who were scavenging the debris for what could be extracted were having a field day. But they were faced with some hurdles in the hands of some street urchins who ensured that the scavengers paid certain fees before they were allowed to go out of the streets with their bounty. The amount they paid was largely determined by the size and volume of the items.

The reporter, who went with the LASBCA officials on the demolition mission for about an hour, discovered that many building in the heart of the ever busy Idumota Market had been identified for demolition.

Two houses away from 4, Massey Street, where the schoolchildren died, there was another three-storey building marked for demolition. When the reporter visited on Saturday afternoon, the building was almost down to ground level.

The LASBCA officials were accompanied by armed operatives of the Lagos State Task Force to forestall any resistance or violence from owners and occupants of the buildings. They stormed Ojo Giwa, Okediji and Seriki streets on the Island to demolish distressed buildings.

About 80 houses, according to the general manager of the agency, Mr. Lekan Shodeinde, would be demolished in the exercise, while many others are scattered across the state.

At close of work on Saturday, the second day of the demolitions, the agency had pulled down 10 buildings.

At Evans Street, the public relations officer of the LASBCA, Mrs. Titi Ajirotutu, said there was no going back on the plans to pull down the distressed buildings in order to avert danger. 

She said the demolition that started on Friday would go on until all the affected buildings were pulled down. 

“We have just started on Freeman Street, Smith Street, Evans Street and others. We will continue and go on and on till we are done with the already marked buildings,” she said.

On Saturday, at 33, Ojo Giwa Street, a three-storey building was demolished. At 34, Seriki Street, another distressed three-storey building was pulled down, while at 21, Okediji Street, a three-storey building was demolished.

Shodeinde, who was represented by the agency’s secretary, Mr. Omotayo Fakolujo, said the buildings would be wrecked in batches. 

He said 150 distressed buildings had been identified on Lagos Island, but 30 had already been demolished in the last one year while 80 would now be demolished.

He also disclosed that 20 of the 80 buildings marked for demolition were on Adeniji Adele, stating that the agency would no longer look back but ensure that distressed buildings were pulled down immediately.

The general manager disclosed that many buildings on the Island had been marked for demolition, but some of them were subjects of litigation, which prevented government from pulling them down immediately.

“Over 80 buildings are ready for removal but we shall be removing them in phases. In the buildings that are subjects of litigation, we try to evacuate the occupants from the buildings so that there will not be loss of lives.

“For others that are still occupied, we are going to evict the occupants to avoid disaster because their lives are important to us,” he said.

On why it took the agency years to wake up from its slumber to begin the demolition on Friday, one of the agency’s officials who claimed he was not authorised to speak on the issue, said there could be many reasons responsible for the delay. He said some owners and developers had gone to court to stop the demolition in some cases.

“To demolish a building is not done overnight as many people think. It requires a thorough process and obvious conviction through a scientific process before it is embarked upon. It must be subjected to flawless technical tests. It has nothing to do with the number of years that the building has existed. Some buildings under construction might not be fit to stand while some with 50 or more years are still very strong and can stand for many more decades,” he said.