17 ‘distressed’ buildings at Alaba Market to be demolished in Lagos

The Alaba international market in the state’s Ojo LGA is home to 17 “distressed” structures that the Lagos administration says will be demolished.

The proposed demolition was revealed by Gbolahan Oki, general manager of the Lagos State Building Control Agency (LASBCA), during a Friday assessment visit to the market.

Oki said the visit offered the agency the opportunity to issue final warnings to occupants of the buildings marked for demolition.The general manager claimed that since 2016, several of the buildings had been tagged with quit notices, and that whenever agency staff try to perform their jobs, the residents often harass them.

“These buildings marked within this Alaba international market would have been included in the list of 349 distressed buildings earlier published in different national newspapers this year,” he was quoted in a statement by Adetayo Akitoye-Asagba, the agency’s assistant director of public affairs.

“But because the occupants were always harassing our officers, it was impossible to capture the details of the structures and include them in the publication.

“What we have done now is a joint exercise carried out by both the Lagos Task Force officers and the demolition gang of Lagos State Building Control Agency. The buildings will be demolished.

“We know that this area is a commercial centre and one of the busiest markets in Lagos state.

“We cannot fold our arms and allow irregularities to continue to thrive in the market where lives of innocent persons would be put at risk because of the failure of a few sets of individuals who have refused to do the needful.”

A document outlining the locations of 349 “distressed” structures in the state was published in March by the Lagos government.