Collapsed building: Owners ‘exceeded approved floors’, face arrest – Lagos govt.

The Lagos State government has said preliminary findings on the collapsed five-storey building in Lekki showed that it exceeded the number of floors approved by the authorities.

Six bodies were recovered Wednesday afternoon from the rubble where the building collapsed, the National Emergency Management Agency said.

Eighteen bodies were recovered on Tuesday, bringing the total to 24.

In a statement issued by Steve Ayorinde, the Lagos state commissioner for information and strategy, the government said it had summoned‎ the owners of the building, Messrs Lekki Worldwide Estate Limited.

The statement quoted the Lagos State Governor, Akinwunmi Ambode, as saying that all directors of Lekki Worldwide Estate Limited were strongly advised to submit themselves to the Lagos State Commissioner of Police within the next 24 four hours in their own interest or be arrested.

‎”Based on preliminary reports and investigation, it was discovered that the collapsed building was served contravention notice for exceeding the approved floors and thereafter sealed by the Lagos State Building Control Agency,” the statement said.

It added that it had also been discovered that in a brazen act of “defiance and impunity”, Messrs Lekki Worldwide Estate Limited, which promotes Lekki Gardens, criminally unsealed the property and continued building beyond the approved floors.

The statement added that the Lagos government, which held its state executive council meeting Wednesday, would no longer tolerate the action of unscrupulous owners and builders who challenge its supervisory control thereby endangering the lives of residents.

The state government has consequently directed the suspension of work at the site and ordered the Lagos State Police Command to cordon it off as it is now a crime scene.