The Lagos State government has charged the Lagos State Physical Planning and Building Control Appeals Committee to evolve strategies to restore sanity in the construction sector.
The spokesman for Lagos State Ministry of Physical Planning and Urban Development, Mr. Mukaila Sanusi, gave the charge in a statement on Thursday in Lagos.
Sanusi said the ministry’s commissioner, Mr. Omotayo Bamgbose-Martins, gave the advice at the opening of a two-day retreat organized by the Appeals Committee in Ikeja on Wednesday.
Bamgbose-Martins urged the committee to review the past, consider emerging realities and come up with new ideas for handling appeals.
He decried the pervasive disregard of physical planning laws and regulations and urged the committee to change the narratives.
Bamgbose-Martins said the committee was inaugurated about three years ago by Gov. Babajide Sanwo-Olu to consider appeals from the public on physical planning and building control matters.
“Certainly, events in the built environment prior to and since the inception of the Committee have justified its establishment as the beacon of hope to the state and all stakeholders for re-instilling the much-needed sanity into the system,” he said.
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He expressed optimism that the retreat would better position the committee to deliver on its mandate, while “praising efforts to retool members of the committee.”
Earlier, Chairman, Lagos State Physical Planning and Building Control Appeals Committee, Mr. Ayodele Adediran, said the committee was an important mechanism to achieve the THEMES Agenda of making Lagos a 21st Century economy.
Adediran said the committee, established more than three years ago, would benefit immensely from a review of its performance in line with the legal instrument setting it up.
He said in spite of challenges, the Appeals Committee had successfully treated 28 out of 52 cases considered and would wax stronger after the retreat.
The Solicitor-General/Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Justice, Ms. Titilayo Shitta-Bay, hailed the establishment of the Appeals Committee.
She added that strengthening the Committee would help a lot in resolving physical planning and building control-related disputes as the world was moving towards alternative dispute resolution.
