‘LAGESC will have zero Tolerance for Environmental Infractions’

The newly formed Lagos Environmental Sanitation Corps, LAGESC, formerly known as the Kick Against Indiscipline (KAI), has disclosed that its top priority as it begins operation will be to ensure that environmental infractions become a thing of the past in the state.

The Executive Secretary of LAGESC, Mrs. Idowu Mohammed disclosed this on Tuesday at a press conference to intimate the people about the activities of the new Corps.

She also stated that LAGESC will make sure that the environment is kept clean at all times in line with the mandate of Cleaner Lagos Initiative. She assured that henceforth, LAGESC will prevent market women and traders generally from displaying their wares on the road.

Mohammed said the corps would now be used to police the highways to ensure that people did not dump refuse indiscriminately on the roads in order to ensure a cleaner Lagos.

“The sanitation corps will now clear the pathways and bridges and dislodge people selling on the road.

They will make sure that the roads are clean and that there is no infraction. They will make sure that the Public Utility Levy is paid by residents of Lagos State.

She assured residents of the state that the new corps will carry out its responsibilities with international best practices, noting that gone were the days when KAI officials conducted their affairs in less civilised manners.

“We are out to serve the residents with all civility and decorum.

Government’s aim is to provide and promote a cleaner and healthy environment, devoid of indiscriminate dumping of refuse and drainage blockade,” she said.

Mohammed that the Lagos State Government will deploy motorized trucks to sweep highways across the state rather than allow street sweepers to do the job, which previously endangered their lives and exposed them to the risk of being knocked down by vehicles. The LAGESC top executive said motorized trucks would now sweep the highways and that over 27,000 of the 30,000 sweepers that would be recruited would be made to sweep streets in their communities and be paid salaries above the N18,000 minimum wage.

“Under the Cleaner Lagos Initiative, 30,000 jobs will be created for sweepers. We have an agreement backed up by the Lagos State Government. In the old waste management system, wastes were collected, but the disposal mechanism was the problem,” she said.