Lagos warns against building conversion for commercial use

The Lagos State Government has warned that buildings should be used solely for their intended purposes — either commercial or residential.

The Lagos State Materials Testing Laboratory Agency General Manager, Olayinka Abdul, said this was to avoid overwhelming the load capacity on such edifice’s structural balance.

She called for detailed assessments of structures, as most materials are being produced substandardly, thus jeopardising the safety of durable structures that will stand the test of time.

Speaking during a collaborative meeting with executives of the Nigerian Institution of Geotechnical Engineers on Tuesday, Abdul, who led a seven-man delegation of the agency, stated that to make Lagos safe and devoid of building collapse, collective inputs by built professionals remained pertinent.

She said, “Every collapse is evidence of a defaulting foundation that shows badly coordinated parameters being interpreted and implemented wrongly from mismatched exponential transformations.

“That is why the state government has prepared levels of checks to make all specifications align, using LSMTL to analyse samples on proponent structures to conform with what the designer (architect) has done for re-evaluation and realignment,” she added.

While pointing out the major culprits that aggravate crumpled buildings in the construction industry, the General Manager ascribed such anomaly to the ineptness of professionals to consider safety lives as a paramount factor, regardless of social strata or status.

She averred, “Every success commences from individual input that transcends to a globally safe environment. There has never been an incidence of buildings caving in without thorough professionals being involved in their construction processes.

“Quite noteworthy, however, this team of professionals often compromise their integrity to the detriment of people’s lives for money. Technically, they do not exhibit what they preach.”

In his address, the Chairman of the Lagos State chapter of the Nigerian Institution of Geotechnical Engineers, Ebenezer Ologuntoye, called for collaborations that would foster professional supervision of structures by Geotechnical Engineers, using best practices of workshops and technical training programmes.

He said, “There should be Geotechnically-Generated Reports from construction sites to ensure quality assurance to existing and newer structures. This will enhance coordinated positions of the land mass in identifying defective foundations that aggravate building collapse.

“This collaboration will include running forensic research on collapsed buildings in averting other future disasters, as most structures are in variance to each land mass, especially considering Lagos Gorge.”

Last month, Abdul decried the use of sub-standard materials by building contractors, saying it posed high risks to lives and investments.

She asked engineers to make collective and deliberate professional contributions to avert building disasters across Lagos State.