Ikoyi Building Collapse: ISPON, NISCN, Task Govt. On Building Legislation
…Commiserates with Victims of Collapse…
Leading Safety Bodies in Nigeria have tasked the National Assembly (NASS) and the Lagos State Government (LASG) on quick passage and enforcement of building codes and regulations to ensure the safety of lives and properties.
The largest chartered professional body in Nigeria, Institute of Safety Professionals of Nigeria (ISPON) and the National Industrial Safety Council of Nigeria (NISCN) spoke while commiserating with victims’ families of the recent 21-storey building collapse in Ikoyi Area of Lagos State.
In a statement by ISPON signed by its President, Kaiser Ebi, while lamenting the incident, he called for more action from relevant authorities and charged the public to refrain from occupying buildings under construction and others marked for demolition.
The Body called for a stronger legislation to guide the construction of projects and executions of building sites while also highlighting the need discourage the ‘unscrupulous practices of quack professionals.’
“The Institute of Safety Professionals of Nigeria therefore urges the National Building Code Inspectorate, the Lagos State Town Planning Authority and other relevant authorities to carry out proper investigations and make these reports available to the Public for the benefits of all Lagosians and Nigerians in general.”
“We do not want to agree that such a building can be constructed without the input of structural Engineers, Safety Experts, Fire Protection Specialist and other civil Construction Authorities of the Lagos State Government.”
“We urge the relevant professionals to discourage their members who are in the business of selling their practicing licenses to unscrupulous developers and quack professionals just to get approvals of drawing without supervising the construction work,” the statement read.
In a Press Statement made available to HSENations, the National President, NISCN, Festus Daniel, decried the sluggishness of the National Building Code at the National Assembly and the failure of many construction firms to abide by building standards.
“We at NISCN are very concerned and strongly insist that the time has come to put a stop to this incidence of building collapse in the country. If professionals [elsewhere] in the world build skyscrapers and [they do not] collapse, how come we build three-story buildings and they collapse?”
“We cannot as a nation continue to ignore the non-passage of the building code relative to what (because is what) obtains in many other countries of the world. The NBC should, therefore, be forwarded without further delay to the National Assembly for consideration and passage to achieve the desired sanity and safety in the building industry,” he said.
