Nyong, MD of Lekki Gardens, detained at Panti

Richard Nyong, managing director and chief executive officer of Lekki Gardens, the construction company behind five-storeyed building that collapsed on Tuesday, has been detained at Panti Police Station.

According to Dolapo Badmos, public relations officer of the Lagos state police command, Nyong will be charged to court “as soon as investigations are completed”.

On Wednesday, Akinwunmi Ambode, governor of the state, had ordered all directors of Lekki Worldwide Estate Limited to submit themselves to Fatai Owoseni, commissioner of police, within the next 24 hours or face immediate arrest.

Nyong complied with the directive and reported himself to the office of Owoseni in company of his lawyer, Wole Olanipekun (SAN), and was detained after interrogation.

After the collpase, the state government had said that “in a brazen act of defiance and impunity, the owners of the building, Messrs Lekki Worldwide Estate Limited, the promoters of Lekki Gardens, criminally unsealed the property and continued building beyond the approved floors until the unfortunate incident of Tuesday which has led to the death of over 30 persons”.

TheCable also reported on Wednesday that Lekki Gardens unprofessionally added the last two floors of the building, the Nigerian Institute of Building has revealed.

“All the work that has been done here is nothing to write home about; it’s work that was done under no supervision, under no professional engineer or builder,” Adelaja Adekanbi, vice chairman Nigerian Institute of Building (NIOB), had told TheCable in an interview.

“Let them bring the engineer or builder that is involved in the construction. The first two building here, I was involved in it; I taught them what to do. They wanted to raise two floors and they did a piling of six metres for this kind of structure so the structural stability is failure and where we are standing, if you don’t know, was purely water two years ago.

“Imagine someone building on water and doing a piling of six metres for a seven-storeyed building. I recommend to Lagos state government that every building here painted or not, should be tested.

“This house we are looking at should also be pulled down in a week. If not, we are looking for another trouble. At this point, I recommend that every house here should be tested to ascertain the structural stability because I don’t think they are habitable.”