The Lagos State Government is set to commence the removal of illegal building attachments and conversions across the state in two weeks.
This was disclosed by the state Commissioner for Physical Planning and Urban Development, Dr. Oluyinka Olumide, in a statement on Wednesday.
He frowned at the practice of illegally converting residential to commercial premises and unduly erecting attachments to buildings, describing that it was high time for sanity and orderliness to reign across the state.
He said, “The state would not tolerate the spate of lawlessness witnessed in commercial centres such as Lagos Island, Ikeja, and Iyana-Ipaja, where shops are illegally extended with sheds and steel external stairways in a bid to attract customers.”
Olumide gave a two-week ultimatum for owners of illegal extensions to remove them, failing which the State Government would commence statewide demolition of such structures, precisely on 15th February, starting from Lagos Island.
In the same vein, the commissioner asked those who erected structures within the right of way of power lines, canals, and pipelines to prepare for massive enforcement by the ministry in two weeks’ time.
He stressed that the government would stop at nothing to ensure a livable and sustainable built environment.
The Lagos State Government had earlier given a 14-day ultimatum on Monday to owners of adjoining structures and shanties within and around the Mandilas building recently engulfed by fire to vacate and remove all illegal structures within the area or risk sanctions from the government.
This ultimatum was issued on Monday during a joint enforcement visit to the site of the fire incident by some key government agencies in the built sector including the Ministry of Physical Planning and Urban Development, Lagos State Building Control Agency, Central Business District, Lagos State Task Force, Lagos State Safety Commission, Lagos State Waste Management Authority, Lagos State Traffic Management Authority, among others.(Punch)
