PSP Operators Accuse New Waste Managers of Disobeying Court Order

The Incorporated Trustees of Association of Waste Managers of Nigeria, better known as Private Sector Participation (PSP) Operators, have accused a waste management company, Visionscape Sanitation Solutions Limited, of disobeying an order given by Justice Taofiquat Oyekan-Abdullahi of a Lagos High Court sitting at Tafawa Balewa Square.

The Waste Managers Association, comprising over 350 PSP operators, had dragged the Lagos State Government and others to court, to stop the government from displacing them or replacing them with new operators.

The association had asked the court to restrain any foreign operator, and their local agents, from taking over the collection, disposal and management of domestic solid waste in all areas of Lagos State.

Listed as defendants in the suit are the Lagos State Government, the Attorney-General of Lagos State, Commissioner for Environment, the proposed foreign operators and their local agents – that is, Visionscape Group, Visionscape Santiation Solutions Limited, and ABC Sanitation Solutions Limited.

In the suit, filed by 30 operators on behalf of others, they are praying the court to restrain the Lagos State Government and its agents, from terminating their right to collect, dispose and manage domestic solid wastes in all areas of Lagos.

The waste managers, also want the court to stop the State from taking over the role of managing solid wastes in the State from them and giving it to a foreign company, Visionscape Group, which is operating in partnership with two Nigerian companies – Visionscape Sanitation Solutions Limited and ABC Solutions Limited.

Justice Oyekan-Abdullahi, had ordered the parties to maintain the status quo pending the determination of the suit.

At the hearing of the case last Tuesday, counsel for the PSP operators, Oluwatosin Adesioye, complained to Justice Oyekan-Abdullahi that despite the court’s order, Visionscape had continued to present itself to public members as the authorised collector of domestic wastes in the State.

In proving his case, Adesioye tendered as an exhibit before the court, a notice dated May 9, 2017 circulated by Visionscape in the State, where it addressed itself as the “selected primary residential waste collector under the Lagos State Government’s Cleaner Lagos Initiative".

He urged the judge to impress it on the parties, not to do anything that would render the final decision of the court in the matter nugatory.

While adjourning till June 23 to formally take the complaint alongside the counter-affidavits filed by the 4th, 5th and 6th defendants in the suit, Justice Oyekan-Abdullahi impressed it upon the parties to be civil, and not take any step that would overreach the court.

The judge advised the parties to be open to discussion among themselves towards an amicable settlement of the case, noting that despite the step being taken to sack the PSP operators, it was evident that “Lagos State is clean and we should commend those who have been responsible for this".

The comment by the judge attracted a round of applause by the PSP operators, who were in court for the Tuesday hearing, but they were quickly cautioned to maintain decorum.

Counsel for Visionscape, Mr. Francis Akinlotan, however, said it would be best if the judge could refer the parties to the mediation centre and see if they could settle the case there, while the court case was pending. Earlier, the judge granted applications by the 4th, 5th and 6th defendants, seeking extension of time to file their defence to the suit.