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The President, Nigerian Institute of Town Planners (NITP), Olutoyin Ayinde, has said that the failure to punish those who violate building ethics encourages substandard buildings that collapse frequently.
The NITP president stated this in Bauchi, at the weekend, during his two-day advocacy visit to relevant ministries, higher institutions, and emir’s palace.
Lamenting that many of the state governments lack the political will to implement the existing town planning laws, Ayinde said gross violation of ethical standards and lost morals worsened avoidable building collapses.
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He urged stakeholders to formulate and implement punishment for those who handled collapsed structures, to serve as deterrent to others.
Ayinde said in his visit to 23 states of the federation, only seven had domesticated the town planning law.
He added: “Of the seven, three are implementing it in the breach; meaning that they have planning organisation headed by politicians, who are members of the construction industry. For me, that is being done in breach because the person cannot understand what the planning programme is.
“Lagos, Ogun and one other state have been able to domesticate it. We have a state that did it but because of Geographic Information System (GIS) they abrogated it.”
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