By FABIAN EKERUCHE

The Lagos State Government has issued a five-day quit notice to squatters under the Ijora Causeway bridge and Lagos Blue Rail Line over the head bridge in Ijora to remove all their shanties or risk demolition and removal.

The government said that the activities of the squatters constitute great danger to the Lagos Blue Line corridor.

This is contained in a statement signed by Mr Adekunle Adeshina, Director, Public Affairs of the Ministry of Environment and Water Resources, on Sunday in Lagos.

The state Commissioner for Environment and Water Resources, Mr Tokunbo Wahab, who handed down the notice during an inspection of the facilities, said that the activities of the squatters constitute a security risk to the smooth running of the blue rail line.

Wahab said that the government would not allow such illegality to continue.

He said that the State Task Force on Special Offences would take full possession of the whole expanse of land under the Ijora Causeway Bridge and would be sustained by the state government.

He 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 ban on styrofoam, Wahab directed that no form of enforcement should be carried out against distributors and sellers of styrofoam products until the expiration of the three-week moratorium granted them.

He said that the three-week window would allow all producers and distributors to mop up all the stock they had before the enforcement of the ban takes effect.

The Environment team was also at the Park View Estate in Ikoyi where a secondary collector has been infringed upon from the upstream by building across and fencing it off.

The commissioner 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 that monitoring and enforcement of the laws on the environment would be an everyday affair and this explains why the ministry has picked up from where it stopped last year.

The commissioner was accompanied on the inspection by the Chairman, Special Intervention Squad on the Restoration of the Lagos Badagry Rail Corridor Clean-Up, ACP Bayo Sulaiman, and Special Adviser on the Environment, Kunle Rotimi-Akodu.

Others included the Permanent Secretaries, Office of Drainage Services, Mr Lekan Shodeinde, Environmental Services, Gaji Omobolaji, Managing Director, Lagos Waste Management Authority, Dr Muyiwa Gbadegesin, the General Manager (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. (NAN)

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