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Building collapse: Sack and prosecute GMs of LASBCA, LASPPPA -SPN

David Adenekan
David Adenekan
Lagos: Follow up on salary increase promise, SPN charges workers
SPN

The Socialist Party of Nigeria, SPN, has called for the immediate sack, arrest and prosecution of the general manager of the Lagos State General Building Control Agency, LASBCA, following the collapse of the 21-storey building in Ikoyi area of Lagos on Monday.

The same treatment, the party said, should be given to the manager of the Lagos State Physical Planning Permit Authority, LASPPPA.

The requests, the party said, were made in view of the role played by the regulatory bodies in the eventual collapse of the building.

In a statement signed by its chieftains, Mr. Rufus Olusesan  and Mr. Moshood Oshunfurewa, SPN, in the same vein, called for the arrest and prosecution of the owners and officials of Fourscore Heights Limited as well as the contractors working with the company on the building project.

Other demands made by the party over the collapse of the building read: “An independent and democratic probe panel comprising representatives of professional bodies like the Council of Registered Builders of Nigeria (CORBON), Nigerian Society of Engineers (NSE), Nigeria Institute of Surveyors (NIS) etc and trade unions like the National Union of Civil Engineering, Construction, Furniture and Wood Workers (NUCECFWW), NLC and TUC, civil society and community associations with a view to unravelling the factor behind this building collapse and the incessant cases of building collapse in different parts of Lagos State.

“Adequate compensation for all victims of the building collapse and their families.

“For comprehensive integrity tests on all high rise buildings in Lagos State including all physical structures suspected to have been built with substandard materials or in violation of approval in order to avoid a repeat of this tragedy.

“An end to casualization in the construction sector. For the regularization of all construction jobs with trade union rights, minimum wage and improved conditions of service.”

Meanwhile, the party has reasoned that the incessant building collapse in Lagos state had been a product of the domination of the construction sector by private capitalist developers who in a desperate search for profit did not mind cutting corners and bringing down costs by underpaying workers and using substandard materials thereby endangering the lives of members of the public.

“Instead of regulating them, it is these private capitalist developers who regulate the government as seen in how they readily and freely utilize the apparatus of the State especially the Police and the army for their own end including snatching the lands of the poor by demolishing their houses, shanties and shops.”

Demanding an end to the unconscionable waste of workers and human lives on the altar of capitalist profit, the party demanded that the Lagos State government should provide housing for the people as done previously by Lateef Jakande government in the state.

That, it said, was still achievable by overhauling and re-tooling the Lagos State public works department to carry out massive housing projects across the state to ensure that the enormous deficit in housing was addressed.

The step, it was said, would put an end to homelessness, slum-dwelling as well as the waste of human lives by private developers cutting corners to make profit.

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