Press Releases

Fashola Inspects BOI Building, Expresses Satisfaction With Preparations For Controlled Demolition

Sep 14, 2008 - Lagos State Governor, Mr. Babatunde Fashola (SAN) on Sunday visited the site of the partially collapsed Bank of Industry (BOI) building in Lagos to inspect preparations for its controlled demolition, expressing satisfaction with the progress so far made.

According to Governor Fashola who was at the Broad Street location of the building, what is very inevitable about the BOI structure is that the building has to come down either by itself or by controlled demolition.

He explained that the State government has taken the responsibility of bringing down the building in a controlled manner to minimize any collateral damage.

Governor Fashola emphasized that the government cannot afford to allow the building to come down by itself, adding that allowing that to happen could result in a major disaster as nobody knows when it would happen.

He added that through the controlled demolition, lives can be saved in the process which the state considers the most important.

In his words: "Lagosians were lucky that when the partial collapse occurred during the last census about two and half years ago, it was not a business day.

You can imagine the kind of catastrophe that would have happened if it had been a working day".

He assured that at the appropriate time he would inform the people of Lagos in a detailed manner of when the implosion would happen and how it will happen, including the risk elements involved, and what steps have been taken to mitigate them.

Said he: "At the appropriate time when we are ready for the implosion we would make more detailed announcements on what we have done before in terms of preparations, what needs to be done during and what needs to be done after and the risk elements".

The Consultant to the Lagos State Government on the Project, informed that the demolition would take the form of a two stage implosion with two seconds interval between each from the top of the building and another from the bottom.

He assured the state government that protective sand bags would be provided to serve as buffers to all the adjoining structures that may be affected by the vibrations of the demolition effect.

The Commissioner for Physical Planning and Urban Development, Mr Francisco Abosede explained that all structures and streets adjoining the BOI building have been swept of people preparatory to its controlled demolition.

He added that alarms have also been provided to alert the people on the demolition as soon as it commences just as Public Address System had been put up to make necessary announcements to the people.

The controlled demolition project is being handled by Wreckers Dismantling Pvt and Hi-Tech Construction.