TheCable

The Lagos state government says it has arrested four officials of a private sector participant (PSP) operator in waste management for dumping refuse on the streets.

This, the government said, is confirmation that the increasing littering of Lagos was orchestrated to discredit the Cleaner Lagos Initiative which replaced the previous waste management system.

The arrested officials allegedly work for Ayomide Olayinka Ventures, whose truck was said to have dumped waste on the street along the central business district of Lagos Island in the middle of the night.

The suspects were arrested by security operatives in the early hours ofTuesday while using their compactor with registration number FST 908 XG to dump refuse on the street, Kehinde Bamigbetan, the commissioner for information, said in a press statement.

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

The latest arrest brings the number of PSP operators arrested for similar offence in the last one week to five, while hundreds of cart pushers and wheel barrow operators have also been arrested for dumping waste in public places and canals in various parts of the state.

Bamgbetan said: “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.

“Under CLI, the government has made provision for the PSP operators to handle collection of commercial waste and there are over 15,000 companies in Lagos that can serve the over 200 PSP operators in the State. So far, the CLI has been able to get over 50,000 new employees out of the labour market.

“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 Mushin area of the State had already been charged to court with the case adjourned to February 26, while the latest suspect would be paraded during the week by the Lagos State Environmental Sanitation Corps (LAGESC), and subsequently charged to court.

“The PSP operators are being used by those fighting against the reforms the government is putting in place. The Cleaner Lagos Initiative is part of the measures to fight institutional corruption in the system which the government is determined to eradicate,” he said.

“The government will not be blackmailed into abandoning the right thing for the people. Overtime, the Lagos State Government has carried out reforms in the Police Rapid Response Squad (RRS), Lagos State Emergency Management Agency (LASEMA), Lagos State Traffic Management Authority (LATSMA), among others and the State Government is committed to ensuring that the corruption in the waste management system is stamped out.

“Any PSP operator henceforth caught will be dealt with using the full weight of the law. No government will fold its arms and allow few vested interests whose interests are inimical to the majority of the people and aimed at sabotaging government’s policies and programmes to have a field day,” Bamigbetan said.

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