Commissioner says, Lagos Building Collapse, Embarrassing to Govt

The Commissioner for Physical Planning and Urban Development, Lagos State, Omotayo Bamgbose-Martins, has said that the incessant building collapse has continued to embarrass the state government.

Bamgbose-Martins,  stated this at the recent Lagos State Physical Planning and Building Control Appeals Committee retreat, themed, “The Role of Lagos State Physical Planning and Building Control Appeals Committee Under the Enabling Law: Issues and Matters Arising.”

The Commissioner said events in the built environment prior to and since the inception of the committee had justified its establishment as the beacon of hope to the State and all stakeholders.

He announced that the team had re-instilled sanity into the system and was acting as checks and balances on actors in the Lagos State physical environment.

He lamented that the state was faced with displeasing outcomes due to disobedience of laws and regulations.

In his words “The state is confronted with the unpleasant outcomes of disregard for planning laws and regulations, mostly in the form of blighted and disorderly developments as well as outright building collapse that has continued to embarrass the government.

“The Physical Planning and Building Control Appeals Committee obviously have a key role to play in changing the narratives for the better by doing all in its power to halt the triumph of lawlessness and enthrone the regime of wholesale compliance through impartial arbitration of appeal cases.

“As a result, I feel so elated that the committee has deemed it fit to retool its members by organising a retreat.  As you deliberate on the way forward, I urge you to lean on past experience and consider emerging realities to proffer solutions.”

On her part, the former General Manager of Lagos State Physical Planning Permit Authority, Funmi Osifuye said the tribunal of the committee could only bark, but could not bite, and the recommendation of the tribunal lacked enforcement like a court bailiff.

Osifuye explained that it is disheartening to note that relevant ministries, departments and agencies under the Ministry of Physical Planning and Urban Development shy from instituting legal actions against contraveners at the appeal committee for justice, probably due to wide-scale ignorance of the existence of the committee and authoritarianism practiced among the MDAs.