It’s not for nothing that Banana Island, Ikoyi, Lagos is called a Billionaire’s Paradise. Built on water, the estate is home to men of influence. It is a thing of pride to live there. But last week, the image of the island was dented: A seven-storey under construction collapsed, leaving behind conflicting casualty figures. OKWY IROEGBU-CHIKEZIE reports.

For those who have not visited Banana Island, Ikoyi, Lagos, its name connotes wealth. Before last Wednesday incident, no one would believe that a building could collapse on the island: a seven-storey, which left fragmented bodies in its trail.

The belief Is that after Aso Rock Villa, Bannana Island may just be the next safest place to live in Nigeria. But the myth was has been broken with the collapse of the building.

Some professionals wondered if it was an implosion given that there was a ready camera to video the fall. They demanded an explanation from the government.

It was gathered that an unspecified number of people were trapped in the edifice that was at First Avenue. Those trapped were workers, food vendors, suppliers of building materials, and visitors.

However, the Lagos State Government denied any fatality. The spokesperson of the Ministry of Physical Planning and Urban Development, Mukaila Sanusi, in a statement, said: “Few who sustained injuries are being treated. There is no fatality. This unfortunate incident happened while casting was being done. The Commissioner for Physical Planning and Urban Development, Tayo Bamgbose-Martins, an engineer, was immediately on site to assess the situation and flag off investigation. We ask members of the public to remain calm and expect further information from the ministry as we know more.”

However, observers in the built environment were infuriated by the government’s position that the building was not approved and wondered what its agencies in the sector, paid with tax payers’ money, were doing.

But, the Permanent Secretary, Lagos State Emergency Management Agency, Dr. Olufemi Damilola Oke-Osanyintolu, said as soon as they got the news of the incident, they activated their response plan, and, upon arrival at the scene of the incident, they confirmed that the building was really under construction.

He said they found that the building was damaged by a cement mixer, which drove into the building columns.

According to him, a head count by the Chief Security Officer, Anthony Onah, had an adult male unaccounted.

CEO of Ove Arup & Partners Nigeria, Kunle Adebajo, an engineer, said the collapse was another major shock in the sector, considering that there seemed to have been a significant reduction in such incidents over the past few months.

There was evidence, he said, that some lessons had been learnt and that preventive measures were being implemented.

However, he cautioned on rushing to conclusion on the latest collapse, based on social media reports, in the absence of rigorous forensic investigations.

According to him, there is, however, the tendency to accept some of the early reports that the collapse might have been triggered by substantial damage caused to one or more of the supporting columns by the truck which rammed into the building.

Adebajo, a former president, Nigerian Institution of Structural Engineers (NIStructee), said: “Indeed, one would wonder why there has not been an explanation of the incident by the professionals in charge of the site and the project. We would expect such reports to be available as soon as possible, particularly, to confirm, or indicate otherwise, that the other three seemingly identical adjacent buildings, still under construction, are not in imminent danger of collapse.

“More importantly, questions would be raised concerning how well the buildings being constructed were. From safe structural engineering design considerations, adherence to proper design practices should not normally lead to an immediate catastrophic collapse of the entire building as was observed in this case.’’

According to him, there are statutory requirements to be met before buildings could be erected to prevent progressive collapse. Even when there were isolated accidental damage, this must not be disproportionate to the original cause, he warned.

He counselled on the need for detailed investigations that must be made public so that lessons could be learnt and offenders punished.

This collapse, the said, called for the need for comprehensive adherence and greater enforcement of the laws and regulations within the building industry.

Technically, there are many things that could go wrong when putting up such a structure, and any of them could lead to a collapse, if not properly addressed, he said. “This is why it is essential that qualified and experienced structural engineers are engaged on such projects,’’ he added.

Immediate past President, Nigerian Institute of Building (NIOB), Kunle Awobodu, said the news of the collapse sounded strange to him, knowing that the area is within the most expensive terrain, a community well-organised or deemed well-organised in Nigeria. Land prices, The Nation learnt, is over US$1,101 per square metre.

According to him, Banana Island is the pride of those who admire the environment. Most nouveau riche in Nigeria crave (for) a residential slot on the artificial island. The ostentatious ones admire the denizens of this peculiar area of Ikoyi. Banana Island residents are in a class of their own, he added.

Awobodu, also a past president, Building Collapse Prevention Guild (BCPG), stressed that building collapse was a threat to lives and the value of land in one of the highly rated and secured abodes in Africa.

He lamented the battered image of the built environment professionals before the world.

“What excuses are we going to offer for the latest imponderable building collapse?” he asked.

Awobodu regretted that, unfortunately, nobody had been prosecuted for building collapse offences as a result of quackery, compromise and impunity.

He said: “When human beings are not subjected to the law of consequence, misdeeds are absolved in sentiments. Alas, loss of lives and property becomes a continuum!”

The Building Collapse Prevention Guild (BCPG) has updated its record of building collapse in Nigeria (1974 – 2023) to 552 with Lagos State accounting for 59.06 per cent or approximately 326 collapsed buildings.

According to them, the exclusive abode is not where there should either be a pre- or post-construction collapse because it is not an abode for the common people. The small man-made island in the Ikoyi neighbourhood of Lagos is likened to San Diego’s La Jolla, New York City’s Tribeca, Tokyo’s Shibuya and Roppongi and Paris’s Seventh Arrondissement.

Completed in 2000, it’s a billionaires’ paradise, populated by the country’s richest and most well-known families, who savour its quiet atmosphere far from the maddening crowd of Lagos.

The 1.63-million-square-metre sand-filled island is a little more than five miles east of Tafawa Balewa Square, the commercial and heart of Lagos. A dedicated road connects it to a network of roads near Parkview Estate. First Avenue in the north and Second Avenue in the sound merge and run around its perimeter. Residents also are attracted to the high-tech infrastructure on the island that’s not available in the rest of the country. Banana Island’s electrical and water systems are underground, there’s a central sewage system and treatment plant as well as street lighting and satellite telecommunications networks.

Mr. Olokunola Wasiu, an engineer, is surprised that nobody had talked about the construction board showing the name of the owner, developer, contractor and other design and supervising companies of the collapsed building. To him, the approval agencies of the state and those responsible for monitoring of ongoing construction seemed not to be up to it.

A builder, Aderemi Adegboyega, called for the execution of integrity test on the three buildings adjacent to the collapsed building. He said like the case of the Gerald Road Fourscore building, there was the need to carry it out the test.

According to him, structural integrity test had to be carried out after vetting their designs to ascertain their suitability, to avoid the building collapsing.

President, Nigeria Institute of Quantity (NIQS), Shonubi Michael Olayemi, advised that the public should move away from emotions to scientific approach. He questioned what happened to the White Paper released after the collapsed Fourscore Homes in the highbrow Gerald Road, Ikoyi and questioned if we had learnt any lesson and if the government implemented the White Paper on previous collapses and punished those found culpable in the death of innocent Nigerians who are trying to eke out a living by working on construction sites.

He regretted that, like the last time, the government might decide to demolish without evidence of what went wrong because they are in a hurry to do something rather than the relevant government body doing a thorough job.

According to him, there is nothing wrong in a building collapsing on Banana Island and Ketu, but that the bottomline is the safety of people. He canvassed the need to do due diligence by doing soil investigation and ensuring that the design, dead load, structural and architectural designs were in tandem with soil investigation.

He said there should be a scientific way of responding to the collapse: testing the concrete mix to ascertain when it was mixed and when used as it could only last 20 minutes or thereabouts.

Olayemi added: “My position is that the government should release the Gerald case file and tell us which one they agreed or rejected and chart the way for forward according to the best practices. Furthermore, they should be interested in what their officials do. Are they creating more problems or solutions to the government. Incidentally, the government has many agencies in the building and construction sector, but how many of them are delivering on their mandate.’’ (The Nation)

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