Lagos State Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu, on Thursday inaugurated a 6-member panel of inquiry to probe the collapse of a 21-storey building in Gerrard Road, Ikoyi.
The panel is headed by the President of Nigeria Institute of Town Planners (NITP), Toyin Ayinde, while Ekundayo Onajobi, a lawyer in a private law firm, is the secretary.
Other members are a structural engineer, Akintilo Idris Adeleke; an architect, Yinka Ogundairo; representative of Institute of Builders, Godfrey O. Godfrey, and Bunmi Ibrahim, a real estate lawyer.
Sanwo-Olu while inaugurating the tribunal in Falomo, Ikoyi, also signed an instrument legitimising the panel and empowering it to invite or summon parties useful to the investigation.
Thirty-eight corpses have been recovered and nine people rescued so far from the wreckage of the 21-storey building that collapsed in Ikoyi, Lagos on Monday afternoon.
The governor had on Tuesday suspended the General Manager of the State Building Control Agency (LASBCA).Gbolahan Oki, over the incident.
Sanwo-Olu said the inauguration of the probe panel shows the government’s sincerity in “unravelling and getting to the root cause of what happened to the building, so that everyone concerned, including the Government, will learn from the very unfortunate incident.”
“Lagosians and the world will be watching and waiting keenly, with the full expectation that the immediate and remote causes of this tragedy will be uncovered,” he said.
Sanwo-Olu said he is counting on the expertise and professionalism of the tribunal members in unravelling the cause of the incident.
The panel has 30 days to submit its report.
