The Lagos Waste Management Authority has sacked street sweepers, their supervisors and the service provider tied to the Oworonshoki Berger corridor after an inquiry found they were dumping refuse on the median.
Two people suspected of illegal dumping in the same stretch were also taken into custody.
LAWMA Managing Director Dr Muyiwa Gbadegesin said at the weekend that the sackings followed weeks of watch on a median already known as a stubborn waste blackspot. The sweepers, he said, admitted they had been emptying waste there.
Gbadegesin said the workers, the supervisors and the contractor were stood down to show that staff and firms in the waste chain must keep to the standards the authority demands. He added that LAWMA will keep digging into hotspots that keep coming back and will act against anyone found feeding indiscriminate disposal, no matter their place in the system.
“Our responsibility is to keep Lagos clean, and everyone involved in that responsibility must play their part. Where our investigations establish that anyone is contributing to the problem, appropriate action will be taken. There will be no exceptions,” he said.
Zoyols News reports that the enforcement team also picked up two suspected dumpers. One of them, Timileyin Ojo, a load carrier, is accused of using a wheelbarrow to tip waste onto the road median around Berger Oworonshoki. The other, said to be a cart pusher, was held for alleged unauthorised waste collection in the same area.
Both were taken to the Oshodi Task Force Office (Mobile Court) for further investigation and prosecution under Lagos environmental law.
Gbadegesin asked residents, businesses and collectors to use approved routes and to deal only with assigned Private Sector Participants. He said waste workers and service providers must meet the same environmental rules expected of everyone else.
“The authority will sustain surveillance along the Berger-Oworonshoki axis and other identified waste hotspots, with further enforcement actions to be taken where investigations establish violations,” he said.
LAWMA also asked the public to report dumping and unauthorised collection through the proper channels and to back the drive for a cleaner Lagos.
