The Lagos State Government has said it won’t relent in its effort to unravel the cause of a 6-storey building collapse at the Synagogue Church of All Nation (SCOAN).
A 6-storey guest house in the premises of SCOAN collapsed on Friday, September 12, 2014; with a death doll of 80 reported so far.
In a statement, the Lagos State Government insisted that the General overseer of the church, Prophet TB Joshua, did not obtain approval for the building, therefore the addition of more floors to the existing two-storey building was illegal.
The six storey building collapsed a week ago.
Commissioner for Physical Planning and Urban Development, Olutoyin Ayinde, who expressed his condolences said that the Government and indeed the Ministry was particularly saddened that innocent lives were lost, and that the government is conducting a preliminary investigation into the cause(s) of the collapse and would leave nothing unturned to unravel what caused the building collapse.
Ayinde said a team of engineers from the Ministry and other state government agencies were taking samples from the foundation and materials from the wreckage of the building for detailed analysis.
He added that if there was any violation of relevant planning laws, government would take appropriate action but would not shut down the church until investigations were concluded.
Speaking on the claims made by the church concerning an unknown flight being the possible cause of the collapse, he said the Ministry had submitted the video clips, as provided by the Church to the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) with the coordinate of the collapsed site for investigation and professional comment.
Meanwhile, the Chairman of the Lagos State House of Assembly Committee on the Environment, Tobun Abiodun, expressed belief that some government officials were influenced to have allowed the church construct the collapsed building illegally.
“But my concern is that we have town planning officers that should supervise buildings in the state, they are accomplices. There is no way someone would build a six-storey building instead of four and they would say they were not aware. I believe that they compromised standard.”
Quoting a report by the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) Tobun said that the building ought to have only four floors instead of six, according to the foundation of the house.