The Lagos State Government (LASG), in collaboration with the officers and men of the Nigerian Navy under the Western Naval Command, on Saturday, embarked on the clean-up of Apapa and its environment.
Speaking with the journalists after the exercise, which extended to Mobil Road and Marine Beach, the governor’s Special Adviser on Environment, Kunle Rotimi-Akodu, said the quest to clean up Apapa and its environment was a marriage between the Lagos State and the Navy authorities.
He added that it was an initiative that would make a meaningful impact in the affected areas by improving the well-being of the residents.
He said the team had gone round some places in the area, such as the motor parks, mechanic workshops, and observed that there were a lot of environmental infractions in the area that the state and Navy were determined to restore sanity to.
‘Akodu said the team also addressed some of the motor boys, their drivers, traders and mechanics to enlighten them on the importance of the exercise, informing that operators of the mechanic workshops under the Marine Beach Bridge were given 48 48-hour ultimatum to vacate the area.
‘The SA noted that the state government does not permit motor boys to be sleeping in the parks or traders selling alcohol on the roads, parks and shanties because they run afoul of the provisions of the State Environmental Sanitation laws’, a Sunday statement noted.
Speaking, the Flag Officer Commanding, Western Naval Command, Rear Admiral Michael Oamen, said the exercise was in line with what the military authorities’ call for civil-military engagement.
He said the initiative would rid Apapa and environs of all forms of environmental infractions, saying since the Navy was a stakeholder in the area, men of the Western Command had all come out to partner with the relevant government agencies to ensure that Apapa was clean.
He said that in every community that the Navy operated in, they took ownership, and Apapa had been the home of the naval base because the Navy started from there.
