November 04, (THEWILL) – Lagos State Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu, has inaugurated a six-man panel of Inquiry, on the 21-storey building which collapsed on Monday in Gerrard Road, Ikoyi.
The inauguration which took place at the Lagos State Waterways Authority (LASWA) building, Ikoyi, is part of efforts to unravel the cause of the incident.
The panel is expected to investigate the circumstances around the incident within 30 days.
The governor also signed an executive bill to give legal backing to the panel during their period of sitting.
Members of the panel include President of the Nigerian Institute of Town Planners, Toyin Ayinde, who is the Chairman of the panel; a foremost structural engineer, Akintilo Idris Adeleke; a partner with a leading architectural firm, Yinka Ogundairo; a foremost builder in the country, Godfrey O. Godfrey; a lawyer and property expert, Mrs Bunmi Ibrahim and and Ekundayo Onajobi, the secretary of the panel.
Sanwo-Olu described the building collapse as a “sad one” for Lagos, adding that the public deserves to know what went wrong.
He said: “We are gathered here to perform a sad but necessary duty, which is the inauguration of a 6-member panel of inquiry into the collapse of the 21-storey building at Gerrard Road, Ikoyi, on Monday. It is a solemn moment for me personally, but this is an important assignment. Indeed, the generation coming after will not forgive us if we don’t do the right thing in this incident.
“The inauguration of this panel shows sincerely that the state government is interested in unravelling and getting to the root cause of what happened to the building, so that everyone concerned, including the Government, will learn from the very unfortunate incident. Lagosians and the world will be watching and waiting keenly, with the full expectation that the immediate and remote causes of this tragedy will be uncovered.”
Sanwo-Olu said he is counting on the expertise and professionalism of the tribunal members in unravelling the cause of the incident.
“What this tribunal will be doing over the course of the next few weeks will have important implications for building safety and for emergency response, not just in Lagos, but in the entire country. It will also go a long way towards ensuring that the families of the innocent victims of this avoidable tragedy experience some sort of closure and get justice”, he said.
The Deputy Governor, Obafemi Hamzat, who was also present at the inauguration, said the panel of inquiry has the mandate to unravel the circumstances surrounding the collapsed building with a view to bringing all culprits to justice to avert a recurrence of such incident.
Mr Ayinde, the panel chair, assured the state executives of a thorough investigation of the incident without fear or favour.
The panel would commence sitting on Friday
