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🇳🇬 Nigeria /Environment & Climate

Lagos arrests 10,634 environmental offenders in one year

From The Punch · () English

Translated from English, summarized and contextualized by DistantNews.

At a glance

News Official statement Outcome reported
  • Lagos State arrested 10,634 environmental offenders in one year to promote sanitation and order.
  • Arrests included illegal highway crossing, street trading, open defecation, and waste management violations.
  • The state also advanced waste management through new partnerships and a waste-to-energy plant.

Lagos State has arrested 10,634 environmental offenders over the past year as part of an intensified enforcement campaign aimed at improving sanitation and restoring order. The Commissioner for Environment and Water Resources, Tokunbo Wahab, announced the figures during a ministerial press briefing, highlighting the state's commitment to environmental sustainability.

The arrests covered a range of offenses, with 5,715 individuals apprehended for illegal highway crossing. Additionally, 3,886 people were arrested for offenses such as street trading, environmental pollution, and unauthorized cart pushing. The enforcement also targeted 102 individuals for open defecation and 931 for improper waste disposal.

The ministry also intensified enforcement activities through its agencies, leading to the arrest and prosecution of environmental offenders, removal of illegal traders and squatters, and issuance of environmental abatement notices across the state.

— Tokunbo WahabCommissioner for Environment and Water Resources, describing the ministry's enforcement actions.

Wahab stated that these enforcement drives align with the state government's THEMES Plus Agenda to create a cleaner, healthier, and flood-resilient megacity. The ministry's agencies have been actively pursuing offenders, issuing notices, and removing illegal traders and squatters.

We have enhanced the waste-to-wealth initiative with the signing of 12 new partnerships on environmental sustainability and have intensified monitoring and enforcement activities against indiscriminate waste disposal and environmental violations.

— Tokunbo WahabCommissioner for Environment and Water Resources, discussing waste management efforts.

Beyond enforcement, Lagos is making strides in waste management. The state has entered into 12 new partnerships to enhance its waste-to-wealth initiative and has intensified monitoring against indiscriminate waste disposal. A new Ikosi Waste-to-Energy Biodigester Plant has been commissioned to convert organic waste into electricity, cooking gas, and fertilizer, processing 0.5 tons daily and saving an estimated 9,000 tons of CO2e annually.

The state continues to enforce its ban on Styrofoam and single-use plastics, having removed over 137,000 kg of PET plastics through recycling efforts.

The plant processes 0.5 tonnes of organic waste per day, generating 30 kWh of electricity daily for lighting and cold storage, delivering an estimated annual emission which will save 9,000tCO2e.

— Tokunbo WahabCommissioner for Environment and Water Resources, detailing the output of the new waste-to-energy plant.
DistantNews Editorial

Originally published by The Punch in English. Translated, summarized, and contextualized by our editorial team with added local perspective. Read our editorial standards.

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