Lagos Arrests Waste Managers For Dumping Refuse On Streets

Lagos State government has arrested four officials of a waste management company, Ayomide Olayinka Ventures, for dumping waste on the street along the Central Business District (CBD) of Lagos Island at night.

The suspects were arrested by security operatives in the early hours of Tuesday while using their compactor with registration number FST 908 XG to perpetrate the act.

Those arrested included the driver of the compactor, Oloruntele Adekunle, and three others. The company was said to have its office at No 1A, Kudirat Abiola Way, Old Oregun Road, Ikeja.

The latest arrest brought the number of operators in the private sector waste management companies arrested for similar offence in the last one week to five.

Hundreds of cart pushers and wheel barrow operators had equally been arrested for dumping waste in public places and canals in various parts of the state,confirming the state’s suspicion that its Cleaner Lagos program is being sabotaged.

According to the state’s Commissioner for Information and Strategy, Mr. Kehinde Bamigbetan, in a statement, “the arrest was a clear confirmation of the suspicion of government that the new environmental waste management policy encapsulated in the Cleaner Lagos Initiative (CLI), was being sabotaged by vested interests.”

He said further: “A PSP operator was caught along Lagos Island Central Business District discharging refuse on the street. He was arrested by security operatives in the middle of the night which shows the institutional corruption that has been lingering in the sector which the state government intends to fight with the reforms put in place.

“The arrest of the PSP operator is a clear example of the deliberate efforts to sabotage what the state government is doing. The PSP operators are not being driven out of their businesses with the reforms as they are making the public to believe.

“The government has also stressed itself by getting N2.5billion loan to enable the PSP operators buy equipment to be more competitive. These are the things they can key into than blackmailing government. The whole idea is to build local capacity in order to employ more of our unemployed youth.”

He said the PSP operator arrested last week in the Mushin area of the State had already been charged to court with the case adjourned to February 26.

Bamigbetan urged residents to exercise a little more patience as the current challenges with waste disposal would soon be over, just as he advised the PSP operators to support government by embracing the new initiative.

Meanwhile, the state government has paraded four cart pushers – Yusuf Saheed, Abubakar Lawal, Bashiru Umar and Amira Abdul, who were arrested at Moshalasi Alhaja in the Agege area of the State for dumping refuse in unauthorised spots.