Lagos insists on pulling down 4,000 masts by January

Speaking at a press conference, UFRU’s boss, Mr. Joe Igbokwe, said the presence of such non standard masts and other old communications facilities constituted threats to human safety.He said: “In the past years, more than 10 people have been killed as a result of collapsed masts. We have the data on our systems. At least, […]

Speaking at a press conference, UFRU’s boss, Mr. Joe Igbokwe, said the presence of such non standard masts and other old communications facilities constituted threats to human safety.
He said: “In the past years, more than 10 people have been killed as a result of collapsed masts. We have the data on our systems. At least, in the past five years, the one I witnessed, we have had up to five of such cases. But in total, we would be talking of up to 10 people that have lost their lives. This is the kind of things we want to discontinue.”
He said rough estimate taken by UFRU indicated that there are between 3, 000 and 4, 000 old and hollow-pipe communications masts and towers scattered across the state.
Igbokwe stated, “For more than two years, we have been urging local users of ordinary masts in Lagos whether they are banks, ISPS, insurance firms, oil companies, hotel, hospitals, construction firms, clearing & forwarding companies, government agencies, local governments, universities, companies and so on to begin the process of decommissioning of their old structures and commission the constructions of new masts.”
He explained that UFRU had earlier conducted integrity test on selected sites when it discovered that the whole lot cannot stand the test of time in Lagos considering it’s coastal nature and the global climate change.
Igbokwe said: “To show that Lagos State government is dead serious on the matter, Governor Raji Fashola decommissioned the old mast in Lagos House, Alausa and commissioned a new one that met the standards set by UFRU.  Now, you would think that this show of leadership by example by the Governor will encourage the mast owners to move into action by gradually removing the old masts and replacing them with new approved ones. No, they are still foot-dragging.”
According to him, UFRU had been speaking to the mast owners since last year but the agency had not seen any serious commitment from them.
“Our deadline still stands on December 31, 2013. Granted that it may be difficult for some of them to meet the deadline because they have not even started anything, we want to see a practical commitment. For those that have started something we want to encourage them to continue to do more and go the whole hog in doing what is right,” he said, warning those that had yet to start to do so, as “UFRU means business.”
The masts belong to banks, Internet Service Provider (ISP), Insurance firms, oil companies, hotels and hospitals.
UFRU which is the Lagos State agency responsible for monitoring the compliance of telecoms masts and towers built in the state to acceptable environmental standards had announced 31st December, 2013 as deadline for owners of equipment to upgrade the facilities to the new standards.