30 cart pushers who dumped their refuse indiscriminately on some roads in Lagos in the middle of the night, have been arrested by the Lagos State Government. Speaking on the arrest of the cart pushers, Chairman of the State’s Task Force on Environmental and Other Special Offences (Enforcement Unit), SP Olayinka Egbeyemi, said the activities of cart pushers in the State are illegal, and investigations revealed they relly dumped refuse on the road side especially at night, thereby sabotaging efforts by the Government to keep the State clean.
Egbeyemi who further confirmed the ban on the activities of cart pushers and wheel barrow operators by the State Government saying those arrested will be prosecuted, warned that anybody found to be working against the new waste management policy encapsulated in the Cleaner Lagos Initiative (CLI), will be prosecuted. According to him, the programme is 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.”
The Task Force Chairman said 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. The arrest came two days after the Lagos State Government announced a total ban on the operations of cart pushers and wheel barrow operators in the State, saying that their activities were inimical to the environmental cleanliness in the State.