Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) has called for an impartial investigation into the devastating fire at United Bank for Africa’s (UBA) Afriland Building and a series of blazes ravaging Lagos Island.
This demand comes in a statement issued on Thursday in Abuja by the NLC’s Acting President, Prince Adewale Adeyanju.
The incident on September 16 claimed at least six lives, left multiple survivors injured and hospitalized, and evoked painful memories of a prior inferno in the same area that razed shops and warehouses, wiping out goods and livelihoods worth billions of naira.
“These fires are totally not accidents of fate. They are products of systemic rot, institutional negligence, and disregard for safety rules which expose citizens to needless deaths and losses,” the statement declared.
The NLC highlighted the tragic images of employees leaping from windows to flee the UBA flames, describing the scene as profoundly disturbing.
“Were there safety precautions in the building design? Were workers trained? Where were crisis management teams?” it questioned.
The union voiced alarm at the persistent market fires in Lagos, labeling them a preventable “annual ritual” that demands robust preventive measures.
A society’s true measure lies in its protection of its people, the NLC asserted—yet in Lagos, the reality is starkly different: “fires without water, collapsing buildings without rescue, citizens without emergency response.”
It further probed the failures of response systems: “Why do emergency agencies continue to budget billions annually yet arrive unprepared in moments of crisis? Why are corporate institutions allowed to compromise safety standards without accountability?”
In response, the NLC urged a thorough inquiry into the incidents, full compensation for those affected, strict enforcement of safety protocols, and boosted resources for emergency operations.
“No worker should leave home for work and end up in the morgue because of preventable disasters,” the statement emphasized.
The union cautioned against trivializing the losses as mere numbers, insisting: “The blood of the workers cries out for justice.”
Additionally, the NLC praised the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) for flood alerts but pushed for swift evacuations and enduring fixes to the yearly deluges tied to water discharges from Cameroon.
Finally, it rallied Nigerians to reject the acceptance of such calamities: “We must demand institutions that work, safety that is guaranteed, and governance that protects, not abandons.”
