The Lagos State Waste Management Authority (LAWMA), has sealed several malls, plazas and illegal market structures along the Ojuelegba and Popo axis adjoining the Tejuosho Main Market, following persistent and flagrant violations of the State’s environmental sanitation laws.
Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer, LAWMA, Dr. Muyiwa Gbadegesin, who disclosed this declared government’s zero tolerance for environmental Indiscipline and nuisance.
The enforcement was carried out in a strategic collaboration with the officers of the Kick Against Indiscipline (KAI), Brigade.
Following widespread environmental abuse marked by the indiscriminate disposal of refuse along major roadways, medians and adjoining public spaces, the Project Wise (Central) Unit of LAWMA, moved into action based on the directive of the MD.
Gbadegesin, reaffirmed the agency’s uncompromising stance against environmental irresponsibility, describing the reckless dumping of waste in public areas as a direct affront on urban order, public health and the collective aspiration for a cleaner Lagos.
According to him, ‘LAWMA had received an overwhelming volume of complaints from responsible residents and daily commuters within the affected corridor, decrying the habitual conversion of roadsides, drainage channels and open spaces into refuse dumps.
‘This is a practice that gravely disfigures the cityscape, endangers public health and significantly heightens flood vulnerability’.
Gbadegesin, stressed that ‘the Ojuelegba–Tejuosho corridor, being one of Lagos’ most commercially vibrant and traffic-intensive zones, must not be permitted to descend into environmental anarchy under the pretext of commercial activity.
‘The environmental integrity of Lagos is inviolable.
‘It is deeply disconcerting that despite sustained public sensitisation, the availability of waste evacuation services and repeated official warnings, some traders and residents persist in treating public infrastructure with brazen disregard.
‘This intervention is fundamentally corrective in intent, aimed at restoring environmental order, civic discipline and communal responsibility’.
The LAWMA boss, maintained that the closure of the affected facilities would remain in effect until the entire corridor is thoroughly cleared, properly sanitised and placed under rigorous monitoring to prevent a recurrence of environmental infractions.
Gbadegesin, said that LAWMA, in synergy with KAI and other relevant regulatory agencies, would escalate surveillance and enforcement operations across markets, highways and residential clusters statewide, stressing that violators would henceforth be met with stringent sanctions in strict accordance with extant environmental laws of Lagos State.
He also urged traders, market leaders and residents to internalise a culture of responsible waste management by engaging approved Private Sector Participation (PSP) operators and making proper use of designated waste disposal facilities, reiterating that environmental cleanliness is a shared civic duty requiring unwavering compliance.
Gbadegesin, reaffirmed the steadfast commitment of the State Government, under the visionary leadership of Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu, to the realisation of a cleaner, healthier and environmentally sustainable megacity, calling on all residents to align with this vision by upholding environmental discipline at all times.
LAWMA assured the general public that enforcement operations would remain continuous and uncompromising for as long as a minority of residents, traders and commuters persist in defying the environmental laws of the State.
