Dr. Olajide Adediran, the Peoples Democratic Party’s (PDP) candidate for governor of Lagos State in the 2023 election, yesterday demanded the resignation of Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu due to what he called the administration’s “ineptitude” to stop the spate of collapsed buildings and the subsequent loss of innocent lives in the state.

Adediran, who spoke through Gbenga Ogunleye, Head of the Media and Communications Jandor4Governor Campaign Organization, also demanded that all suspects in the recent seven-story building collapse on Oba Idowu Abiodun Oniru Road, Oniru Estate, in the state’s Victoria Island area last Sunday be prosecuted.

The media briefing, titled ‘Avoidable deaths from incessant building collapse in Lagos State: Sanwo-Olu should resign,’ was held at the Liberty Place, Campaign Headquarters, in Ikeja.

The PDP candidate observed that the state government’s “display of insensitivity and inefficiency is quite distressing,” even as he highlighted that the issue “seemed to have lingered due to leadership rudderlessness and irresponsibility of relevant officials.”

He said, “It is expected that the governor himself should have resigned instead of the arranged scapegoating of asking his commissioner to quit. He has made several unkempt promises to prevent these disasters and the attendant mourning of avoidable deaths.

“His insensitivity and display of disregard for human lives, by showing up at a social event in faraway United States of America to present an award, while the blood of the victims was still warm is condemnable. Very reprehensible.

“The Building Collapse Prevention Guild (BCPG), an advocacy group of built environment professionals, in 2019 revealed that 36,000 potential collapsed buildings were waiting to happen in Lagos. But this clueless government did nothing to arrest the issue.”

“The recent case of the building collapse in Victoria Island where six people died is one case too many. The death of the victims was preventable. It is a clear case of dereliction of duty and this act is criminal.