The Lagos State Environmental and Special Offences Unit, on Monday, served squatters at Iganmu Under Bridge, around Whitesand, and a three–day removal notice of all illegal structures, trucks, and vehicles in the area and Apapa environs.
Chairman of the agency, Chief Superintendent of Police Shola Jejeloye, urged all owners of the illegal structures, abandoned trucks, and shanties to immediately remove them as well as vacate the area within the stipulated date given or be forcefully removed.
Jejeloye, while appealing to traders, mechanics, and other squatters living under the bridge in clusters, noted that government would enforce the three-day removal notice on Thursday, May 13, 2021.
He disclosed that the ‘Removal Notice’ became necessary in view of the rising incidences of traffic robberies around the area and environmental nuisance caused by the squatters in the area.
The chairman noted that the government was worried by the squalid environment and that it is serving as hideouts for criminals, who daily dispossess road users of their valuables every now and then, adding that the present nature of the environment allows criminals to escape police arrest.
He expressed the government’s commitment towards reducing the traffic incidence around Ijora and Apapa and therefore becomes important to remove every bottleneck to such policy.
Jejeloye stated that the indiscriminate parking and abandonment of trucks on the road is inimical to that policy.
He, therefore, warned owners of such abandoned trucks and vehicles, shanties, containers, kiosks to remove them from the area before the expiration of the deadline, adding that “this won’t be the first notice of removal being served on the occupiers.”
“Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu’s newly signed ‘Executive Order’ on traffic and sanitation declared zero tolerance for environmental abuse, illegal and indiscriminate dumping of refuse and defacing the environment.
“I can assure you that government would enforce this notice come this Thursday,” he said.