Lagos Goes Tough On Building Contractors

The Lagos State Government has given a stop work order on some construction sites over building contractors’ failure to comply with safety laws and regulations.

A new generation bank building under construction at Oregun, Lagos, Southwest Nigeria was affected in the order.

The action is a follow up on the disregard for previous warnings issued to many construction sites in Badagry, Ikorodu and Epe during inspections carried out last year.

Others sites where contractors were stopped from working include a building located beside PKF House on Ikorodu road; a building along Opebi link bridge, part of which has collapsed and another one inside the Ikeja GRA.

Director General, Lagos State Safety Commission, Mrs. Dominga Odebunmi, who led the inspection team,  also visited some ongoing projects, including the construction site of a pedestrian bridge at the Lagos State secretariat to link the Ketu-Shangisha axis; the construction site of a multi-storey office space and some sites being handled by government contractors.

Odebunmi decried the trend of collapsed buildings which had caused unquantifiable loss of lives and property in the state, stressing the need for building contractors to always put safety on the front burner and ensure strict adherence to it.

After sealing off one of the buildings, one of the safety consultants, Engr. Dapo Taiwo, said the commission would leave nothing to chance at ensuring that contractors adopted measures to promote safety, while describing deaths on construction sites as colossal.

ì Contractors report fatalities incidents to  the police who have no training to handle such occurrences, instead of reporting the incidents to the commission,î he said

ìBecause accidents do not announce themselves before they occur, there is the need for building owners and contractors handling ongoing projects, especially high rise buildings to have a safety plan, which would among other features, anticipate hazards that might occur on site and how they intend to handle them,î he stated.

Taiwo added that the lapses observed across all the sites visited must be corrected and concrete safety plans initiated by the affected contractors before the seal-off order would be removed.

ìThe idea behind the closures is to instill the culture of best international practices in the local construction industry. The commission is out to promote safety especially at construction sites.

Among the infractions observed during the inspection were failure to set up adequate barricades and caution signs across excavation sites to prevent falling, failure to provide hard hat and hard boots for all workmen, lack of proper storage and waste disposal mechanism, among others.

By Kazeem Ugbodaga