Lagos State Government has issued a five-quit notice to squatters under the Ijora Causeway Bridge and Lagos Blue Rail Line overhead bridge in Ijora. They have been asked to remove all their shanties for constituting a danger to the Lagos rail corridor or risk demolition.
The Commissioner for the Environment and Water Resources, Tokunbo Wahab, announced the directive when he led a delegation that included the Chairman, the Special Intervention Squad on the Restoration of the Lagos Badagry Rail Corridor Clean-Up, Assistant Commissioner of Police, ACP, Bayo Sulaiman, and Special Adviser on the Environment, Kunle Rotimi-Akodu on an inspection of the Ijora and the under bridge.
Wahab who lamented the security risk that the occupation of underneath the Blue Rail Line bridge by mini buses, block molders, fuel sellers, and miscreants posed to the safe operation of the train service, said the government would put a stop to the ugly development.
The commissioner stated that the state Task Force on Special Offences would take full possession of the whole expanse of land under the Ijora Causeway Bridge and this would be sustained going forward.
Wahab also gave a 24-hour quit notice to all those selling petroleum products under the Ijora Bridge to move all their trucks and containers or risk confiscation, adding that they posed enormous dangers to the infrastructure and human presence in the area.
On the styrofoam ban, he said enforcement will not be carried out against distributors and sellers of styrofoam products until the expiration of the three-week moratorium granted them.
Wahab maintained that the three-week window would allow all producers and distributors to mop up all the stock they have before the enforcement of the ban takes effect.
The Environment team was also at the Park View Estate, Ikoyi where a secondary collector has been infringed upon from the upstream by building across and fencing it off.
He directed the Drainage Enforcement and Compliance Department to serve proper notices to all the property owners asking them to give unfettered access to the state to monitor its secondary collectors and remove any impediments if any.
Wahab said monitoring and enforcement of the laws on the environment will be an everyday affair and this explains why the ministry has picked up from where it stopped last year.
The delegation also included the Permanent Secretaries, Office of Drainage Services, Engr. Lekan Shodeinde, Environmental Services, GAJI Omobolaji, Managing Director, Lagos Waste Management Authority, Dr Muyiwa Gbadegesin, GM LASEPA, Dr Tunde Ajayi, GM LASPARK, Mrs Toun Popoola, Managing director LASAA, Prince Fatiu Akiolu, Corps Marshal KAI, Mrs Gbemi Akinpelu and other directors in the ministry.
