Residents of the 500-room Agboye Estate have been thrown into mourning as demolition work on the partially collapsed school-turned-residential structure on Oduntan Street, Kosofe, Ketu, Lagos, started.
The building’s partial collapse on Saturday following a downpour was not properly announced to the inhabitants, according to Mr. Onome Agboye, the estate’s owner.
The estate, Daily Trust gathered, was served an abatement of nuisance notice by the Ikosi-Isheri Local Council Development Area (LCDA) over its breach of the state’s Environmental Sanitation Law 2003.
Documents obtained by newsmen revealed that the local government, through the state’s Ministry of Works and Environment, served three warning notices since 2021 to the owner of the estate but that he failed to comply.
The last notice, dated June 14, 2023, contained three contraventions, including a dilapidated wall of the building liable to collapse and detrimental to the health of the occupants.
A resident, Raymond Ijele, said the owner did not inform them about the abatement nuisance notice, lamenting that many had been rendered homeless.
He said, “Some of them went to the churches. Thank God for the Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG), some people’s property is there. My own property is in my neighbour’s place. My wife, my four-month-old baby, and other children are there.”
The residents who accused the owner of the estate of not informing them of the nuisance notice, lamented that they were unable to secure other apartments as a result of the high cost of accommodation in the state.
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Meanwhile, the Councilor representing Ward E in Ikosi-Isheri LCDA, Aderogba Gbadegoke, told Daily Trust that the local government issued several notices to the owner about the possibility of a collapse.
He explained that the building used to house a business institute before it was gradually converted into a residential estate.
