On Wednesday, the general manager of the Lagos state building control agency, Mr. Gbolahan Oki visited Alaba International Market to urge traders to comply with the state’s building code.
“Lagos state frowns at people building without approval,” Mr. Oki said. “It is compulsory that any construction, renovation, rehabilitation must have a planning permit.”
Alaba, one of the largest electronics markets in West Africa, is infamous for its illegal building structures which endangers lives and property. In June 2023, LASBCA demolished 17 structurally “distressed” mega plazas at the market. The agency said it had made a list of 349 distressed buildings in the area. By the next month, Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu had set up a technical committee to comprehensively look into the issue. The government then issued an amnesty notice for the marketers traders to secure permits.
“We expected that by now, over 60 to 70 percent of them would have done the needful,” Mr. Oki said on Wednesday. “But we found out that just a few of them have sent in their drawings and the majority of them are building without approval.”
Mr. Oki said other markets across the state are complying with the building code and Alaba should not be an exception. “No one is above the law,” he said.
President of the International Market Association Electronics in Alaba, Chief Camillus Amajuoyi, averred with Mr. Oki.
“We are trying to key into this amnesty programme that Lagos has given us,” he said. “They have extended it from six months to December and we are doing everything possible. Inf act, we have gotten the assessment. What we are doing now is just to dot the Ts and Is so that at the end of the day, we will get the approval.
“The only problem we have is that some people are saying that I, the President, is the one bringing Lagos state government. So it is so devastating, so annoying. I’m doing everything humanly possible to make sure that we meet up to the standard of Lagos state so that at the end of the day we will comply with what they are saying.
“But some of my brothers and individuals are saying I’m the one that is bringing them to come. Now they have come, but by the time we understand it, I don’t know what will happen
“But I want to seize this opportunity to tell Alaba traders to comply with what the government is saying. We are not going to confront or fight them. They are the policymakers of the state, so we are ready to comply and those few that do not want to comply, by the special grace of God, by the time they come, they will see the repercussions of what they’ve done.”