– Leads Divisional Imams to visit survivors of Lagos collapsed building
The Chief Imam of Lagos State, Sheikh Sulaimon Oluwatoyin Abou-Nolla yesterday urged the Lagos State Government to ensure strict compliance with building regulations.
This, the revered scholar said, would curb the continued collapse of buildings in the state.
Sheikh Abou-Nolla made these comments to reporters after visiting survivors of the Massey Street collapsed building at the General Hospital, Lagos Island.
He was joined by the five Divisional Imams from Ikorodu, Ikeja, Badagry, Lagos and Epe, and the Mission Board members of the Lagos Central Mosque.
The Muslim scholars were taken around the survivors’ wards by the hospital’s Head of Social Welfare Department, Oluwakemi Okunmuyide.
According to the Chief Imam of Lagos State, the agency in charge of building regulations (Lagos State Building Control Agency) should ensure defective buildings are taken down.
“We should not wait for this kind of unfortunate incident before we do the needful. It is better to pull down defective buildings than lose lives. We all know that it is a technical issue and what is important is for us is to maintain the building code, which is very important to avoid building collapse.
“Those in charge should ensure compliance with the regulations. It is important to have LASBCA officials go out to check defective buildings and do the needful. This will help reduce calamities happening today because, in every country, there are mechanisms to check defective buildings. When we have weak and defective buildings, they need to take them down,” he said.
Sheikh Abou-Nolla praised the Lagos State Government for the prompt response and adequate care.
“We thank Governor Akinwunmi Ambode, Commissioner for Health Dr Jide Idris and the hospital management for helping to ease the pains of the affected people. This is important at this point that the people are in trauma. They need trauma management, they need our prayers, they need our support – financially, physically and mentally to return to their normal lives. We pray to Almighty Allah to prevent such an occurrence again. We pray Allah to guide and protect us from calamities. We pray to Allah to ease their pains,” he said.
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