Lagos tightens safety controls

Lagos to fine builders for breaching safety laws The Lagos State Safety Commission is to impose fines of N250,000 ($1,600) on builders who fail to comply with safety laws, in line with the government's commitment to reduce the instances of Lagos buildings collapsing and catching fire.

The director the commission, Dominga Odebunmi, said that in 2010 the state introduced the Lagos State Safety Law which governs all houses, hotels, factories and estates in the city. She said that buildings in non-compliance with the safety laws would be closed down by the commission, while the head of the Lagos State Building Control Agency, Abimbola Animashaun-Odunayo, said that her agency would do likewise with unauthorised construction sites whose builders had not been issued with planning permission.

In recent years the Lagos State governor Babatunde Fashola has ordered the demolition of many illegal structures. In late December the massive Pure Fire Miracles Ministries church at Afero Village on Lekki-Eppe expressway was demolished for not having adequate planning permission, while in early January there was a spate of demolitions in the Lagos suburbs of Ejigbo, Orile and Mushin.