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Lagos State House of Assembly on Thursday directed the chairmen of 20 local governments and 37 local council development areas (LCDAs) in the state to immediately mobilise Private Sector Partnership (PSP) operators in their areas to take up the task of domestic waste collection. The Assembly’s directive, which signals trouble, might be in the offing for the outgoing Governor Akinwuumi Ambode, counters the extant law and executive order earlier issued by the governor, ceding domestic waste collection in the state to Visionscape Sanitations Solutions Limited.
BusinessDay recently reported there had been concerns over the continuity of Visionscape beyond Ambode who is billed to leave office in May 29, 2019, following the decision of his party – All Progressives Congress (APC) to deny him ticket for the second term in office.
Ambode introduced Visionscape, a municipal waste manager, to take over waste management in Nigeria’s most populous state, in 2017, a development that put him (Ambode) on collision course with the PSP operators.
Mudashiru Obasa, speaker of Lagos State House of Assembly, who gave the directive to the council chairmen at plenary on Thursday, also ordered Azeez Sanni, the clerk of the House, to invite Babatunde Durosinmi-Etti, the commissioner for the environment, to appear before the House on the matter next week.
The action of the state legislators followed an urgent matter of public importance raised by Gbolahan Yishawu, a member of the House representing Eti-Osa Constitueny II bordering on mounting heaps of refuse scattered all over the state.
Obasa emphasised that the Lagos State government does not know about Visionscape, insisting that there are three arms of government including legislative, executive and judiciary, noting that the state government ought to have consulted the House on Visionscape before they started operation.
He said: “We once wrote the commissioner for finance, Akinyemi Ashade not to pay Visionscape again and that he would return any money he paid to them after our instruction to the coffers of the state government. We will go to that, when the time comes, but we have to do the needful now.
“We are calling on the 20 local governments and 37 LCDAs in the state to have meetings with the PSP operators to go back to work and they should start paying them and make the residents start paying the operators. We have to avoid epidemics and be proactive.’’
The speaker also warned those stopping people from dumping refuse at the dump sites to desist from doing so, adding that “I saw a lot of refuse trucks in a bad state and that some of them have been abandoned.”
He insisted that the House ought to have approved the new refuse disposal policy of the state government before Visionscape started work.
Gbolahan Yishawu said, “Some refuse are taken to Epe and Ikorodu but it is a bit far now as 300 instead of 800 trucks now dispose of refuse.
“The sanitary landfill in Epe is not being utilised and the transfer loading stations too are not working effectively and the turn- around time of packing the refuse is not being utilised.”
The majority leader of the House, Sanai Agunbiade from Ikorodu Constituency 1 revealed that heaps of refuse litter his area, adding that for the state to have good sanitation, a law on environmental sanitation was passed in Lagos State, but that it seemed it was not properly implemented.
“I will suggest that we should challenge those in the Ministry of Health and those in the Ministry of the Environment” adding that the Commissioner of Environment should be invited to know the challenges facing the Ministry of Environment so as to verify their challenges.
Also speaking, Bisi Yusuff from Alimosho Constituency 1 revealed that eight people died in Igando, where they dump refuse in his area. Yusuff stressed that Visionscape does not know the job and that they did not even allow PSP operators to help the people.
“There are big rats on the roads now and they could even make a vehicle to stumble. “We should look at it critically. They are not picking any refuse in the state. It is an important matter that should be handled urgently,” he said.
In his comment, Abiodun Tobun from Epe Constituency 1 stated that Lagos State is dirty and that only God would help the state.
He stated that Epe is not benefiting from the system and that their water has been contaminated and that all their roads are now bad.
“There is no industrial estate in Epe, but they have in other places, “They cannot bring refuse dump to Epe, they can relocate it if that is what we are benefiting. We want better things in Epe such as industries and other things,” he said