Lagos State Governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, read the riot act to residents that engage in environmental degradation in various parts of the state on Friday, saying anyone apprehended would be made to face the wrath of the law.
When the governor visited the Oshodi-Apapa Expressway’s traffic jam by the Mile-2 Bus Stop with members of the State Executive Council, including the Commissioner for Information and Strategy, Gbenga Omotoso; the Commissioner for the Environment, Tokunbo Wahab; the Commissioner for Transportation, Oluwaseun Osiyemi; and the Special Adviser to the Governor on Transportation, Sola Giwa, among other senior officials, he declared a zero-tolerance policy on environmental degradation.
When discussing the potential reintroduction of the state’s environmental sanitation day, which his predecessor, Akinwunmi Ambode, had cancelled due to litigation, Governor Sanwo-Olu emphasized the necessity of the reintroduction and declared that the state government would no longer tolerate environmental recklessness.
Sanwo-Olu said, “We have moved along the Lagos-Badagry Expressway. We have seen what our taskforce has been doing to secure the entire right of way (ROW) to remove all sorts of miscreants and illegal trading. I’m happy with what I saw, and I was able to explain it to the shop owners and residents. They saw the need for us to do what we are doing.
“All the commercial vehicles had hitherto been parked on the expressway. We went all the way to Mile 2, especially on the right-hand side; it has been completely cleared. Hitherto, containers and traders stayed there permanently. We are going to wall off the entire place and make the environment clean for beautification.
“On the other side, there is yet to be clearance, and the taskforce has given them notices, and from next week, they will do the full clean-up exercise again.
“It is total zero tolerance. All the commissioners that have to do with the environment have been instructed. The exercise will continue. It takes total zero tolerance for bad behaviour and recklessness to ensure that we bring back environmental sanity.
“We also have a stopover at Apongbon; we need to clean it up. We need environmental sanitization at all these shops, and they have given their commitment.
“There is zero tolerance under the bridges except for little trading. Anything that has to do with welding and mechanical forms has nothing to do with under the bridges.’’
