‘Mistakes were made from all angles’ — Sanwo-Olu speaks on Lagos building collapse

Babajide Sanwo-Olu, Lagos state governor, has spoken on the collapse of a 21-storey building in the Ikoyi area of the state.

Speaking on Wednesday when he visited the site of the building collapse, the governor said there is enough blame to go around.

He said: “This an event that could be described clearly as a national disaster. Mistakes were made from all angles.”

While sympathising with the relatives of the victims, the governor said such an incident “should not be happening in a modern-day city like Lagos”.

The governor had on Tuesday announced the indefinite suspension of Gbolahan Oki, the general manager of the Lagos State Building Control Agency (LASBCA).

Commenting on the suspension, he said: “We will say that we had to take from the head, from the leadership of that agency

“And you can rest assured that if they are other people that are found in the course of the investigation, they will face the full wrath of the law.”

Gbenga Omotoso, Lagos commissioner for information and strategy, had said an independent panel will be set up to probe the collapse of the building.

He said members of the panel will be drawn from the Nigeria Institute of Architects (NIA), Nigerian Institute of Town Planners (NITP), Nigeria Society of Engineers (NSE), and other professional bodies.

“It will independently investigate the remote and immediate causes of the incident and make recommendations on how to prevent future occurrence. The investigation is not part of the internal probe already being conducted by the government,” the commissioner had said.

“We wish to state that there will be no cover-up in the search for the truth in this incident. If anybody is found to have been indicted, he or she will face the law.”

Meanwhile, Obafemi Hamzat, deputy governor of Lagos state, had earlier said construction at the collapsed building was once stopped after it failed a structural integrity test.