Distressed Buildings: Lagos Pays Landlords, Gives Them Quit Notice

The Lagos State government has issued two weeks quit notice to occupants of three distressed two-storey buildings at Oke-Afa Housing Estate, Ejigbo area of Lagos, Southwest Nigeria and  gave them money to rent apartments pending the reconstruction of the buildings.

Each of the 15 families living in the distressed buildings were given N200,000 to rent apartment and vacate the buildings latest 7 May, 2013 as government wants to reconstruct the buildings and hand them back to their owners.

About 16 buildings have been identified as distressed in the estate after the state government conducted integrity test on them last year.  The test was carried out after a two-storey building collapsed on 20 November, 2012, killing two person.

General Manager, Lagos State Emergency Management Authority, LASEMA, Dr. Femi Oke-Osanyintolu, while issuing out cheques to the landlords and occupants of the flats said several meetings were held with the association of the estate, which led to integrity test being carried out on the buildings by the Lagos State Material Testing Laboratory.

“We discovered that certain blocks are severely affected. We had to subject them to integrity test, rebuilding and evaluation. We told all occupants of the affected buildings to vacate the defective buildings  within two weeks after they have been given N200,000 each  to look for accommodation for one year,” he explained.

Oke-Osanyintolu stated that after the buildings had been reconstructed, they would be handed over to their owners after negotiation had been made.

President, Oke Afa Housing Estate Landlords Association, Alhaji Abdul-Ganiu Taiwo, said they were in support of government’s move to reconstruct the buildings and hand them back to them, saying that the exercise was a positive response to the yearnings of the people.

He said after a building collapsed in the estate in November, government carried out integrity test on some of the buildings and that 16 were found to be distressed, adding that government planned to reconstruct the defective buildings in phases as the first three buildings and the one that collapsed in November would be reconstructed during  the first phase.

—Kazeem Ugbodaga