Governor Ademola Adeleke of Osun State has warned developers and residents against the construction of houses without approved building plans, threatening to demolish badly built houses posing a threat to human safety.
Reacting to a recent building collapse in the Ayetoro area of Osogbo, Governor Adeleke, in a statement issued by Rasheed Olawale, his spokesperson, emphasized the importance of securing approvals for building plans to ensure the standard of construction and avoidance of needless deaths and injuries.
According to the governor, building plans are not an optional step in building construction as they stop substandard houses that frequently collapse and pose safety risks to occupants and the environment.
“I am using this medium to direct the Ministry of Lands to step up enforcement of approved building plans by developers and residents. Our officials must go to the estates and development areas to ensure houses are constructed according to approved plans.
“We need to save lives by ensuring that houses are built according to standard. We must also be proactive by testing the health of houses before a human tragedy occurs. Substandard houses once identified should be pulled down before fatal collapse.
“We will sanction those who refuse to comply with the condition of approved building plans. I further direct relevant agencies to pull down substandard houses before they wreck havoc. We must not wait for lives to be lost before we act”, the governor said.
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Meanwhile, a delegation of Government led by Mayowa Adejorin, the Commissioner for Environment, was at the scene of the collapsed building to assess the damage and launch a Government reaction.
Accompanied by Emiola Fakeye, the governor’s Special Adviser on OSEMA, the team inspected the area and also discovered another building that was in a bad state.
The team would be working with other relevant Ministries to prevent similar recurrence.
“We inspected the collapsed building and we discovered it has no building plans. We are reaching out to other related MDAs to give effect to the governor’s directive”, Adejorin stated.
