About 24 hours after a one-storey building sited at 9 Alli close, Mile 12, Kosofe Local Government, collapsed, Lagos State Government, said there was no single columns (pillars) in the building to support structure.
It was gathered that the building was constructed over 30 years ago, 1985, and partially collapsed at about 9 am on Saturday, allegedly killing one person and injuring another.
Explaining the preliminary reason for the collapse, the Acting General Manager of the Lagos State Material Testing Laboratory, LSTML, Mr. Rasheed Balogun, an engineer, lamented that there were obvious cracks on the structures, indicating that the structure was ill-maintained.
He said: “We came to conduct the structural stability test. And from our preliminary investigation, we discovered that this structure was constructed over 30 years ago. And there are obvious cracks all over the building.”
“Also, there are no visible columns to supports the structure. But we will carry out detailed studies on the building to further ascertain other causes that led to the collapse. The report would be concluded in another four days; after which the result would send our report to the appropriate quarters for immediate actions,” Balogun added.
The acting General Manager noted “If after the test, the result shows that the building failed, the structure would be demolished.”
Earlier, in an interview, the son to the owner of the building, Mr. Ilesanmi Kamaldeen, a civil engineer, argued that the building was constructed with the best materials and his late father seek the services of the best civil engineers at the time.
He noted that there were six pillars supporting the structure at the collapsed section, “but one of the columns became defective about three weeks ago. And we decided to renovate it. It was during renovation exercise the structure partially collapsed.”
