Lagos – A Nigerian state commissioner in charge of construction safety and oversight in Lagos has resigned, a day after an unfinished building collapsed in Nigeria’s commercial capital, killing six people.
The tragedy struck on Sunday when a seven-storey structure under construction collapsed in the upscale district of Lagos.
It was the latest building collapse in Africa’s most populous nation where many reside in dilapidated structures and construction safety regulations are often ignored.
Bad workmanship, low-quality materials and corruption to bypass official oversight are often blamed for Nigerian building disasters.
A government statement late Monday said Idris Salako, the Lagos commissioner for physical planning and urban development, had quit his job, adding that the resignation “is a prelude to the restructuring of the ministry and its agencies”.
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The government thanked Salako for his service but “warns all players in the sector to respect the law or face the consequences of any indiscretion, no matter who the perpetrators are”.
The emergency services said Tuesday six bodies had now been recovered from the debris of the collapsed building.
“We have six bodies in all as we have reached ground zero,” Ibrahim Farinloye of the National Emergency Management Agency told AFP.
He said investigators would look into the cause of the latest collapse, coming 10 months after a high-rise building under construction collapsed in the Ikoyi district of Lagos, killing at least 45 people last November.
Since 2005, at least 152 buildings have collapsed in Lagos, according to a South African university researcher investigating construction disasters.
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Source: AFP
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