Thursday, June 13, 2013

‘Collapsed Mushin building had 10 landlords’

Onlookers were, on Wednesday, left in bewilderment when facts emerged that 10 landlords owned the building that collapsed on Tuesday, at Challenge Bus Stop area of Mushin, Lagos.
According to information gathered from former occupants of the ill-fated building, the condition of the house had deteriorated over the years because none of the 10 landlords was ready to take responsibility of the maintenance of the building, and therefore, the buck-passing continued until the house eventually collapsed.
Based on the existing laws in the state, the 10 landlords may now have to forfeit the land on which the house was built to the state government.
According to one of the former tenants of the three-storey building,who identified himself as Nojeem Bello to newsmen, the 10 landlords were only interested in collecting rents from the occupants but cared less about the physical state of the building.

Bello, who claimed to have been away at work on the day of the incident, further revealed that his wife and child were temporary trapped in the building until providence smiled on him and they were eventually rescued by the joint efforts of the rescue officers on ground.
He revealed that the collapsed house was built about 40 years ago by its original owner known as Baba Jebba, but that after he died about some years ago, his children inherited the property and shared it among themselves.
In the meantime, the Lagos State government, through its agency - the Lagos State Building Control Agency (LASBCA) - immediately ordered immediate evacuation of two other buildings closest to the collapsed one, and had proceeded to mark them for possible demolition.
When Nigerian Tribune visited the site on Wednesday, occupants of the marked buildings were seen making frantic efforts to move their things out, while at another end, many of them who apparently had no where to go to had littered their surroundings with their belongings.
As at the time of writing this report, light and heavy duty equipment and machinery had been stationed for immediate demolition of the building, and officers of LASBCA were seen making moves to commence the demolition exercise.
It will be recalled that the three-storey building located Amu Street, Challenge Bus Stop, Mushin, collapsed at around 2.00p.m, on Tuesday, during a downpour and its sole causality was a 12-month old baby.
TRIBUNE

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