Governor Ambode seals off construction site

The governor of Lagos state,

During an inspection of the site, he revealed the government's plan to conduct stability tests on all buildings constructed by the Lekki Gardens because the recent incident was "one building collapse too many”.

“The State Government will undertake a stability test on all other buildings constructed by the Developer in the State, whether occupied or not, to ascertain their structural stability. The Developer will pay the cost of the tests. Any building found to be defective would be demolished. For those that pass the integrity test the developer will pay a penalty for any overdevelopment on the site,” he said.

READ: ‘Lekki incident could have been prevented if proper measures were taken’ – experts say

Wasiu Anifowose, the Commissioner for Physical Planning and Urban Development, advised occupants to vacant because of the stability test.

“In the best interest of the occupiers of the other structures, their lives are very important to us as a government and we are appealing to them to vacate the buildings immediately until investigations are completed.

The gentleman behind Lekki Gardens got approval for ground, first, second and third floors, but after doing the roofing, he removed it and added additional two floors which caused the building to collapse. So, we have to carry out integrity test on the other structures and the cost implication for present occupiers of the other structures to vacate the buildings would be borne by the developer,” Anifowose said.