Press Releases

Fashola Inspects New LAGBUS Service Workshop, Kaiyero Market: Appeals To Displaced Traders For Patience

Feb 10, 2009 - Lagos State Governor, Mr. Babatunde Fashola (SAN), Tuesday inspected the progress of work at the Kaiyero Market in Oshodi with an appeal to displaced traders to exercise patience as plans were underway to relocate them.

Addressing a crowd of traders and residents that gathered to welcome him at the market site, Governor Fashola explained that one of the things the Government wants to do in the new market is to see how many people who were displaced at the open streets and roadsides could be relocated in the new market which he described as comfortable.

The Governor told the cheering crowd: “This is the kind of market we want for you. So in the process, once we finish this one, we will start with the extension of the market and bring more people inside here”, adding that the Government has also arranged how the traders would be paying for the shops gradually until they finish the payments.

According to the Governor, the Government is working with the contractor and he is already very cooperative, adding that if the people also cooperate with the Government, the problem could be easily sorted out.

“What is the big problem are people selling on the roads. It is dangerous for you, if a vehicle loses control; it is coming to crush you. We don’t want that to happen to you anymore”, the Governor said.

The Governor also acknowledged the receipt of various letters and text messages from residents of the area on various issues such as crimes, taxes and the environment and declared: “We are very very carefully working through the problems one by one”.

Commenting on the various petitions on apparent delays in granting building permit, Governor Fashola, who acknowledged the receipt of some complaints, explained that the Government has conducted internal investigation on the matter and discovered some anomalies in the procedure.

“What we found out was that some people first go and borrow money before they seek for approval and this is causing some problem. It is a planning procedure that we have to change. Until the project is ready, we can’t commit money and be earning interest on a project that is not ready”, the Governor explained, adding that there is a planning error there which Government was doing something about.

Also, according to the Governor, Government also found out that most of the people who apply for building plan permit do not follow it through, adding that they are using agents who do not tell them what the problems are.

“On our part in the last few months, we have sent letters; we have sent e-mails to all the people who have pending approvals and we have not got the kind of response that we expect”, the Governor said adding that what the Government plans to do in the next few weeks is that we are moving to all the planning districts in the State and set up base for three days during which all those who have pending building plan approvals would be given the opportunity to come forward and collect them.

He declared: “We are moving the planning to the people. We will publish when we are going to be in each planning district. Once we are in your local government or your planning district, you come there and let us solve the problem together. We want to clear the backlog that are with us , but people are not responding”.

“As I have always explained, it is not as if we are withholding any building plan approval. We just want to know who is building where. It is only when we know where people are building and how many flats are there that we will know how many people that we are going to provide water for, and we can know how much refuse that we have to clear from that house”, the Governor said.

He explained further that it is from the same knowledge that Government would be able to plan for electricity supply and schools as well as hospitals and other social services for people living in the house, adding, “It is necessary that we should know this so that we will begin to prepare for you as you are building and also to know whether to send a BRT there. This is why it is important for us to know even before you build”.

The Governor said it has always been a thing of grief and sadness for the Government whenever buildings collapse. “Because lives are lost, properties are lost, and because these are our own people. These are the people we have the constitutional responsibility to protect their lives and their property and when buildings collapse, sometimes we lose lives, sometimes we lose properties and we want to put an end to all this”, he said.

“That is what we want to teach our people. You cannot build a house without professionals. People must do soil tests, people must give approvals; there must be proper load calculation so that the house does not collapse. When you have invested money and built a house and it is badly done, you have wasted your resources. You have wasted your time. You may be building when you are already fifty-five, you are no younger. So we want to help you to put up a building that will last”, Governor Fashola said.

Citing example with what obtains overseas where buildings constructed over 100 years ago are still standing, Governor Fashola declared. “We can do better, we have engineers, and we have architects who are some of the best in the world. This is why we are concerned about building controls and collapsed buildings”, adding that there is a law in place that authorizes the Government to acquire any collapsed building anywhere in the State.

Appealing to Lagosians to pull down and rebuild houses that have exceeded their life span, Governor Fashola pointing out, “Every building has its own life span. There are those that have fifty years, there are those that have more. Our appeal is, if your building is old or has outlived its span, apply to us. Pull down the building by yourself so that we don’t acquire the land”.

Continuing, the Governor explained that when some people apply to Government for building permit, they apply for four floors and when this is approved, it is later discovered that they have extended the building to six flours, adding, “When we approve four floors, we approve it based on the design of the building”.

The Governor warned, “If you extend your building more than the approved floors without telling us, it is a violation of the law. When you want to extend your building more than what was approved, apply to us and we will change the design. We don’t want the rush on any building. That building will come down”, adding that in order to avoid this, professionals must be involved and there must be proper mixture of cement, proper load calculation and correct building materials to support the number of floors”.

Insisting that Government would not compromise with the safety of the people, Governor Fashola said the only option open to Government if people refuse to comply with the law was to acquire the building after collapse. He said although Government was interested in the development of Lagos and for people to build more houses, it is concerned that the development should not hinder and cause discomfort for the people.

He said if a place has been designated as residential building it should not be converted into commercial building adding, “If you build your house and hope to retire into it at sixty only for you to find out when you have retired that someone has built a mosque in front of it, it is not fair on you?.

The Governor had earlier visited the Workshop being constructed for the servicing of the high capacity LAGBUS at Cappa Bus-stop in Mushin where he was told the Workshop would be ready in April this year.