By Josephine Oguntoyinbo
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Ondo State Ministry of Physical Planning and Urban Development said it is poised at enforcing rules and regulations to avert building collapse as well as ensuring proper planning and development of the State.
Speaking in an interview with The Hope while re-sealing the Oluomo Plaza at Oba Adesida road, Akure, the Commissioner of the Ministry, Mrs Lola Fagbemi who led the team informed that the building had earlier been sealed but was removed, noting that the building remained sealed.
According to her, the building does not have necessary building approval coupled with illegal attachments on it, hence contravened building codes.
She warned against any attempt to remove the seal.
She advised the developer to regularise what the ministry has directed them to do, saying that from statistics, over 460 building have collapsed in Nigeria within the last two years, and does not want replication in the State.
Mrs Fagbemi posited that all professionals in charge of buildings must be at alert and do the needful, adding that it is one of the ministry’s mandate to ensure compliance.
The Commissioner maintained that indiscriminate constructions that does not have the mandatory land use clearance, building permit, survey plan and Certificate of Occupancy, often cause incessant building collapse and indiscriminate fire outbreak with human and material casualties,hence the need for developers to comply with the extant laws.
She noted that setbacks must be free from illegal structures and activities, while landscapes should be consciously managed to forestall contravention.
She stressed the need for physical planning standard with the speed of population growth to ensure social and economic development.
The Commissioner promised that the ministry would continue to enforce the policy guiding physical planning in the State in terms of erecting buildings, citing of industries and companies among others.
