The Meeting which had all stakeholders including Builders, Architect, Surveyors, Engineers, Planners, the various bodies in the building sectors, regulatory agencies and government agencies began with an opening remark by the Director General of Lagos State Emergency Management Agency, Doctor Femi Oke-Osayintolu.

Oke-Osayintolu said the meeting was called following the need for holistic approach in preventing building collapse, saying there was need to understand the remote causes of building collapse in the state.

He said the administration of Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu had made safety of lives and properties a priority, saying there was also plan by government to remodel, develop and upgrade certain areas of the state for improved economic and aesthetic value.

To achieve this, Osayintolu said talks would be held with locals in the identified areas, saying the people would be drivers of the projects.

Osayintolu said there were some buildings the state would critically look into within twenty-four hours, saying government was prepared to accommodate persons who would be affected by its urbanisation policy until alternatives were available for them.

According to him, government was not talking about demolishing but was talking about urbanisation, regeneration and reconstruction, saying government We are going to carry out a lot of awareness, enlightment before we take any action. Government will not take any action. We (the people) will take all the actions. It is going to be everyone’s business.

“We must ensure that we do not experience building collapse in our state. In doing so, we have called the people they call ‘seven Bs’ which are the town planners, builders, architects, surveyors, land users and government regulatory agencies together for frank discussions.

“We want to know where we are weak, our strengths and how to improve on our weaknesses. We are still going to carry out a sort of workshop for everybody including the artisans in this job.”

Speaking to newsmen, General Manager Lagos State Building Control Agency, Abiola Kosegbe, declared a lot of buildings in the state were distressed.

Kosegbe, who said the statistics were alarming, assured that the agency had taken inventory and was already working towards addressing them.

She appealed to resident to subject their buildings to integrity test, noting that all hands must be on deck to prevent building collapse in the state.

According to her, government intend to hopefully come out with a lot of things that would help in preventing building collapse, saying usually, when distressed structures were identified, they mark them and the owners were expected to take them down or perform needed repairs.

“But now, she said government was being proactive and would try most times take action before such buildings collapses.

“Currently, there are a lot of distress buildings in Lagos right now and we have taken inventory of them. Hopefully, in the next two to three months, we are going to try to address the situation one by one,” she said.

In her submission, a surveyor Adekemi Okusaga, said poor quality of building materials was responsible for building collapses, lamenting that today’s block were no longer thick.

She emphasised the need to return to the basics, warning people to stop sharp practices.

Also, speaking President, Architects Council of Nigeria, Dipo Ajayi said the government, professionals in construction and the people all share blames, saying over 100 buildings have collapsed in the last three years across the country.

Ajayi said the government must have the will power to upgrade places like Kara and Itafaji which had become slum communities and were defacing, demarketing the state.