Government of Lagos State will begin the prosecution of artisans found on unapproved building sites as provided in its building control laws.

General Manager of Lagos State Building Control Agency (LASBCA), Arc. Gbolahan Owoduni Oki, whike disclosing this yesterday at Ikeja, at Day Two of the agency in-house training, said the move was aimed at tackling incessant building collapse in the state.

The training was themed: “Repositioning LASBCA for better service delivery.”

He stressed the need for bricklayers, plumbers, welders and carpenters to abide by the dictates of the building law and ensure that building collapse is a thing of the past in Lagos.

Oki urged all stakeholders to work for the quality of construction in the built environment.

He lamented that building collapses often occurred due to negligence on the part of professionals, who abandoned their supervisory roles to the artisans because they have jobs in other sites.

The LASBCA boss said the theme of the workshop indicates a desire to not only ensure that their services are topnotch. in terms of delivery and interactions with members of the public, but to also achieve the purpose for which the agency was created

This, he said, include: building control in all its ramification, granting of approval to commence construction, inspection of various stages of building construction, verification of general contractors’ all risk and building insurance policy, issuance of certificate of completion and fitness for habitation and identification, and removal of distressed and non-conforming buildings.

He said: “Let us work together. When you see something, say something. Many lives have gone and we cannot get them back. Any building demolished can be replaced but we cannot replace lives. We need support from artisans and developers. We expect to hear how you think, we should do better and we will tell you what the law says.

“Now our law is going to be enforced in totality. Any artisan found in an unapproved sites will be arrested. Before that, there will be warnings and discussions, but we need your cooperation.”

Meanwhile, the Commissioner for Physical Planning and Urban Development, Engr. Paul Omotayo Bamgbose-Martins, has tasked officials of the agency on integrity and uprightness in their responsibilities.

He said he had submitted an interim report to Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu, which contained contributions from all stakeholders.

He said: “We are currently being castigated by the public, maybe rightly so, but then I call it shared responsibility.

“There are situations where we are going to work with the private sector and ensure that in situations that are necessary, we would get some kind of professional integrity from them.

“But then their reputation and professional integrity would be at stake and not just us. They are supposed to be experts. So, if they are experts, let them show us their expertise, we allow them to work with us. And then, what will we be able to achieve, promptness in our permits, and promptness, even in our certifications and basically in all our process and our service level will improve tremendously through that.”

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