Sir Kesington Adebukunola Adebutu

Kazeem Ugbodaga

The Lagos State Government has demolished a four storey-building belonging to the founder of the popular Premier Lotto aka Baba Ijebu, Sir Kenssington Adebutu, to avert loss of lives and property in the state.

The building is located at 6, Campbell Street, Lagos Island, Lagos, Southwest Nigeria. The building was vacated 15 years ago when it became dilapidated, but said to have been purchased by Adebutu a few years ago.

The building was sealed off by the Lagos State Building Control Agency, LASBCA, twice to allow the owner embark on Structural Integrity Test before embarking on manual demolition exercise on Thursday.

Mr. Sheye Olofin, Manager Omega Homes, the building adjacent to Adebutu’s building, lamented that they worked with fear on daily basis, saying that the slabs from the building often dropped on their head.

“In fact, our cleaner was injured by one of the slabs from the building. When we noticed that parts of the building had started falling off, we called the owner of the building, Premier Lotto, but nothing was done.

“It kept destroying our property often but that wasn’t our major concern. Our concern was the life that could be lost if it was allowed to collapse. And that was why we decided to write to the owner of the building.

“Few months after, he sent a team to investigate our claims last year. And when they came, they discovered that the alarm raised was not false. We had been complaining over the state of the building over four years to the owner. But we are happy that the government has finally come to demolish it,” he said.

Mr. Felix Olowojoba, Director of Enforcement, LABSCA said the distressed building was demolished because there was 90 per cent likelihood of its collapse.

“When we detect building that are defective and could collapse any moment, it is the responsibility of the government to ensure that such building does not cave in, it demolishes it to avoid loss of life. Over the years, we have had the report of the falling of its concrete. We recommended that the building should undergo Structural Integrity Test to assist LASBCA to ascertain its structural integrity. And the report that came out was not favourable. The report showed that the building is over burdened and distressed,” he said.