NIWA Suspends Banana Island Reclamation

• The National Inland Waterways Authority (NIWA) has ordered the suspension of all reclamation work around Banana Island.

• The Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer of NIWA, Goerge Moghalu, said this when he visited the site of the building collapse incident.

• The Federal Government agency also distanced itself from the issuance of building permits or Certificates of Occupancy (C-of-O) as further revealed.

EKO HOT BLOG reports that the National Inland Waterways Authority (NIWA) has ordered the suspension of all reclamation work around Banana Island, where a building collapse occurred recently.

This announcement was made by the Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer of NIWA, Goerge Moghalu, when he visited the site of the incident. The order demands the immediate suspension of all reclamation activities within the area of the incident on the Island, pending the conclusion of the investigation ordered by the Lagos State Government.

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In a statement signed by NIWA’s General Manager, Corporate Affairs, Jibril Darda’u, the Federal Government agency also distanced itself from the issuance of building permits or Certificates of Occupancy (C-of-O). It faulted accusations made by the Lagos State Government linking it to the building collapse in a recent news publication.

According to the statement, a National Daily publication carried a distorted account of what transpired over the collapsed building in Banana Island.

The Lagos State Governor was quoted in the publication accusing the Federal Government Agencies, particularly NIWA, of being culpable in the incident of the building collapse on the highbrow Banana Island. The Governor also described officials of NIWA as reckless in the manner they issue permits without regard to the topography of the area. He further stated that the site of the collapsed building was not originally part of the Island’s plan.

NIWA vehemently dissociated itself from the statements and allegations of the Lagos State Government over the collapsed building in Banana Island as contained in the said publication.

The information contained in the publication was false, baseless, and a misrepresentation of the issues that led to the collapse of the building in Banana Island with the intent of misleading members of the public regarding what had actually happened.

Investigations carried out showed that the collapsed building was constructed on lines 15 and 16 of the original plan of Banana Island, and the said collapsed building was not constructed on any subsequent extensions.

The responsibility to inspect every stage of building construction remains that of the Lagos State Government and its officials, and where there are failures in the performance of such duties, the blame should not be transferred to the Federal Government, particularly NIWA.

The spokesman for NIWA noted that, “In the light of the above, the allegations by Lagos State Government against NIWA are short on facts and carry no weight.”

It can be recalled that a building under construction in the high-end Banana Island area of Lagos State collapsed recently, resulting in the loss of lives and property.

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Following the incident, the Lagos State Government ordered an investigation into the cause of the collapse and called for the suspension of all construction work on the Island.