The Lagos State Government said it has arrested four officials of a Private Sector Participant (PSP) operator in waste management alleged to be engaging in deliberate sabotage of waste disposal in the state at midnight.
In a statement by the Commissioner for Information and Strategy, Kehinde Bamigbetan on Tuesday, the government said that the four arrested staff of a PSP operator known as Ayomide Olayinka Ventures were caught while dumping waste along the Central Business District (CBD) of Lagos Island.
"The suspects were arrested by security operatives in the early hours of Tuesday while using their compactor with registration number FST 908 XG to dump refuse on the street.
"They included driver of the compactor, Oloruntele Adekunle and three others. The company was said to have its office at No 1A, Kudirat Abiola Way, Old Oregun Road, Ikeja," the statement stated.
It further explained that this brought the number of PSP operators arrested for similar offence in the last one week to five, while hundreds of cart-pushers and wheel-barrow operators had equally been arrested for dumping waste in public places and canals in various parts of the state.
The statement noted that the arrest was a clear confirmation of the suspicion of government that the new environmental waste management policy encapsulated in the Cleaner Lagos Initiative (CLI) was being sabotaged by vested interests.
“A PSP operator was caught along Lagos Island Central Business District discharging refuse on the street. He was arrested by security operatives in the middle of the night which shows the institutional corruption that has been lingering in the sector which the state government intends to fight with the reforms put in place.
“The arrest of the PSP operator is a clear example of the deliberate efforts to sabotage what the state government is doing. The PSP operators are not being driven out of their businesses with the reforms as they are making the public to believe.
“Under CLI, the government has made provision for the PSP operators to handle collection of commercial waste and there are over 15,000 companies in Lagos that can serve the over 200 PSP operators in the state. So far, the CLI has been able to get over 50,000 new employees out of the labour market.
“The government has also stressed itself by getting N2.5billion loan to enable the PSP operators buy equipment to be more competitive. These are the things they can key into than blackmailing government. The whole idea is to build local capacity in order to employ more of our unemployed youth," the statement read.