A new directive from the Lagos State government indicates that the construction of buildings on weekends, public holidays and at night, is now illegal in the state.
The Commissioner for Physical Planning and Urban Development, Toyin Ayinde, announced this at a ministerial press conference on Tuesday (21/05/2013) at Alausa, Lagos, attributed the ban to increasing cases of collapsed buildings being recorded across the state.
The Commissioner said:
“More worrisome is the fact that some unscrupulous developers and builders have decided to embark on illegal construction work at weekends, public holidays and even at night. This will no longer be tolerated.
“Consequently, the ministry will soon extend its service, especially monitoring, removal of illegal structures and arrest developers and their workers found on sites beyond the regular working hours so as to be able to tackle this unwholesome trend and behaviour head-on to stem the preponderance of these illegal activities appropriately,” he stated.
“It is true that these activities take place daily on our streets, roads, in our neighbourhood. The Ministry and its staff cannot comb the entire State 24/7 for illegal developments. I therefore use this medium today once again to solicit for the cooperation of members of the public to report any construction work whatsoever, at any level especially those taking place at odd times earlier mentioned to the ministry via phone calls, SMSs, e-mails immediately,” he added.
Ayinde said that the state government would soon begin compulsory integrity test on buildings and construction materials before construction in order to identify and remove distressed buildings.