The Lagos State Government has disclosed that the Synagoge Church of All Nations did not seek its approval to erect additional floors, sparking further debate about what possibly led to the collapse of the structure that has killed 44 persons and counting.
Commissioner for Physical Planning Olutoyin Ayinde, who accompanied Lagos State Governor, Babatunde Fashola (SAN) to the site of the collapse at the SCOAN HQ in Ikotun, Lagos, said the church’s engineers were yet to present their approval for the modification.
Ayinde said: “Our meeting with the prophet was a closed-door meeting but it surrounds the collapsed building. It is a sad situation; lives have been lost and many others have been rescued.
“We use this opportunity to express our sympathy to the affected people.
“We have no proof that the church had permit to add to the existing structure. We have asked the engineering team to meet us and for about two hours now, no member of the team has come.
“We also have questions for them. Even if the building does not have approval, it ought to be built professionally. We have asked for their team and we hope in the course of the week, they would get to us.
“It is necessary to take the final inventory before we can say the number of people affected. Right now, we do not know how many people are involved. When a final inventory has been taken, the ministry of special duties will take a decision as regards relieve,” he added.
General Manager, Lagos State Building Control Agency, Mrs. Abimbola Animashaun, confirmed the lack of a permit.
She said: “We have investigated and found that they had no approval for the additional structures. Even the main church, which they have added about three floors on, was sealed two days ago, but it is now open.
”You cannot have an existing building and start putting up more buildings on it. Before you can do anything like that, you must confirm that the structure is still stable and can stand additional buildings.”
National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), Southwest spokesman, Ibrahim Farinloye said, “We were able to work overnight and so, as at now (6pm), we have 130 rescued alive and 44 dead. Nobody can say what caused the collapse. But from the footage shown to me, where all the foundation of the building was shaking before it caved in, it could have been caused by the additional structure.
“Investigations will confirm what really happened. You can see that some of the beams and blocks are still intact. So, some of the permutations cannot be ruled out.
“We are working on worst case scenario that the foundation might have been weakened, which would have led to the collapse.”
