…Vows To Prosecute Saboteurs Of New Waste Management Policy
Lagos State Government on
Monday arrested 30 cart pushers for dumping refuse indiscriminately on road
medians in some areas of the State in the middle of the night.
Chairman of the State’s Task
Force on Environmental and Other Special Offences (Enforcement Unit), SP
Olayinka Egbeyemi who spoke to journalists, said the arrest was in line with
the recent ban on the activities of cart pushers and wheel barrow operators by
the State Government.
Egbeyemi, who affirmed that
the activities of cart pushers in the State are illegal, said investigations
found them culpable in dumping refuse on the road side especially at night
thereby sabotaging efforts by the Government to keep the State clean.
He said the Government is
poised to go all out to prosecute any persons found to be working against the
new waste management policy encapsulated in the Cleaner Lagos Initiative (CLI),
saying the programme is designed to revolutionalise waste administration in
line with global best practices when fully operational.
“There are reports that
refuse are littering the Lekki, Victoria Island, Ajah and other parts of the
State and investigations reveal that it is the handiwork of unscrupulous
elements within Lagos State Waste Management Authority (LAWMA) and their
outside sponsors who are not comfortable with the new arrangement for the
management of waste in the State and are hell bent on sabotaging government
effort and frustrating them from carrying it out.
“The State Government has
vowed to go all out against the saboteurs and after their sponsors and punish
them in line with the laws of the State.
“We also need to let
Lagosians know that it is illegal to use cart pushers to evacuate refuse and
they should stop encouraging it. There are PSP vehicles that come around to
pack refuse and they are the ones they should patronise and not these cart
pushers.
“We want to notify all these
cart pushers that their activities are illegal in Lagos. Lagos is a mega city
and we have all it takes to collect refuse. So, the issue of going to the
streets and collecting refuse and then dump same on the road is an act of
sabotage to the government,” he said.
Egbeyemi said the suspects
arrested would soon be charged to court for prosecution, just as he assured
that Government would leave no stone unturned in keeping the State safe and
clean.
Besides, the Task Force
Chairman said that the enforcement would continue across the State until the
activities of cart pushers and other unscrupulous elements found to be
frustrating government’s efforts are completely brought to a halt.
“For the past two to three
weeks, we have been noticing refuse on the roads and investigations have
revealed that part of those carrying out such act and sabotaging government
efforts are these cart pushers and probably there might be some people behind
them,” Egbeyemi said.
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