Mandilas Fire: Lagos Govt orders removal of illegal stalls, extensions or face demolition

By Olasunkanmi Akoni

LAGOS — The Lagos State Government has ordered owners of amerciable stalls, shops, and extensions obstructing entree routes astatine Mandilas Plaza, Lagos Island, to region them by the extremity of today, Friday, oregon hazard demolition.

The directive follows the caller occurrence outbreak astatine the fashionable plaza, traced to a generating acceptable placed wrong the complex. While nary lives were lost, properties worthy millions of naira were destroyed. Emergency effect teams, however, struggled to entree the country owed to amerciable structures blocking introduction points.

In a viral video, the Permanent Secretary of the Lagos State Building Control Agency (LASBCA), Gbolahan Oki, was seen addressing traders and informing that non-compliance would pb to contiguous demolition.

“Any trader oregon store proprietor who refuses to region amerciable extensions should beryllium prepared for demolition. There volition beryllium nary stopping until the amerciable structures and obstructions are wholly cleared,” Oki declared.

He besides expressed sympathy to victims who mislaid goods to the inferno.

Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu, speaking precocious astatine the 2nd variation of the Lagos International Fire Safety Conference (LIFSC), noted that occurrence incidents successful Lagos had declined successful 2024 arsenic a effect of the authorities government’s investments successful modern firefighting equipment, exertion deployment, and improved mobility.

“In 2023, the Lagos State Fire and Rescue Service responded to implicit 2,500 calls. By past year, that fig dropped significantly, showing that our advocacy, communication, and engagement efforts are yielding results,” Sanwo-Olu said.

The politician disclosed that his medication had built 25 caller occurrence stations crossed the authorities successful the past six years, with 4 much expected soon. He added that implicit 60 modular occurrence trucks and modern firefighting kits were acquired successful the past 2 years.

Beyond equipment, Sanwo-Olu emphasized the usage of astute exertion and assemblage information successful gathering resilience against occurrence hazards. He highlighted that Lagos had acquired drones susceptible of detecting occurrence sources successful high-rise buildings, further strengthening exigency effect capacity.

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