• Threatens to demolish buildings without regulatory standards
• Four days after incident, rescue operation is still on, fire yet to be put out
Lagos State Governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, yesterday, said that the state government would demolish all buildings that did not conform to regulatory standards around the site of the Dosumu Market fire on Lagos Island.
Sanwo-Olu stated this when he paid an on-the-spot assessment visit to the site with the fire still burning for the fourth day, affecting 14 buildings so far.
The governor said that the initial report showed that the fire was caused by carelessness and the refusal of the people to allow rescue agencies to commence work immediately.
He said all the state agencies had been mandated to report to Lagos Island markets for integrity tests on buildings, while an audit of the fire incident would be conducted before the market would be reopened.
The governor, who said that findings had shown that traders placed generators on rooftops and top floors of structures and also had other combustible materials inside the buildings, said all residential buildings turned into markets and others found unfit for habitation would be demolished.
He further said that despite the tough measures against violation of the laws, the state government would still provide succour to affected traders to help them get back on their feet.
He said: “This is a complete disaster. It is extremely very unfortunate. As of the last count, we have about 14 houses in one form or the other that have been affected and a bit more might still go down after the extensive fit-for-purpose test that will be conducted over the next couple of days here.”
“What I have seen here is what could have been prevented.We don’t have a full report yet, so, I don’t want to speculate, but the initial report that came to us was just gross carelessness and people not understanding what it means when we say keep your environment safe.
“We will conduct a proper extensive audit into what led to this.
“We also noticed that a lot of residential apartments have been converted into warehouses, including people’s sitting rooms and inflammable materials were kept in them,” the governor said.
