Lagos State Government on Monday arrested 30 cart pushers for allegedly dumping refuse indiscriminately on road medians in some areas of the state.
Chairman of the State’s Task Force on Environmental and Other Special Offences (Enforcement Unit), Olayinka Egbeyemi, told reporters in Lagos that the suspects reportedly committed the offence in the middle of the night.
He explained that the arrest was in line with the recent ban on the activities of cart pushers and wheelbarrow operators by the state government.
Egbeyemi, who affirmed that the activities of cart pushers in the state remain illegal, said investigations found them culpable in dumping refuse on the roadside, thereby sabotaging efforts by the government to keep the state clean.
He, however, said the government is poised to go all out to prosecute anyone found to be working against the new waste management policy encapsulated in the Cleaner Lagos Initiative (CLI), adding that the programme has been 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, Egbeyemi said in a statement.
“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 megacity 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 added.
The Task Force boss said the suspects arrested would soon be charged to court and assured the people that government would leave no stone unturned in keeping the state safe and clean.
He also vowed 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 activities and sabotaging government efforts are these cart pushers and probably there might be some people behind them,” Egbeyemi said.