Mr Valentine Buraimoh, the Chairman, Amuwo-Odofin Local Government Area of Lagos State, on Saturday urged residents to maintain the status of the council as the cleanest in the state by keeping their environment clean always.
Buraimoh gave the advice in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on the sideline of the Environmental Clean-up of 2nd Avenue area of the local government.
He said residents should avoid dumping refuse on the median to keep the roads clean.
According to him, Amuwo Odofin has been recognised as the cleanest local government and it must be sustained.
”We have told residents that they should not dump their refuse on roadsides; they should bag and keep them in front of their houses so that LAWMA can pick them up,” he said.
Buraimoh said the clean-up of 2nd Avenue of the area was in line with the Cleaner Lagos Initiative, a key policy of Gov. Akinwunmi Ambode’s administration.
“The local government is committed to a cleaner, greener and habitable environment,” he stressed, urging residents to show some respect to the environment.
“We need to have more respect for our environment than we do now. The cleaning of the environment should be part of our daily life routine.
”On my way here, I caught a woman duping refuse on the median at Dubar Road, a place we just evacuated refuse from.
“We have also put a `caution tape’ there, indicating that people are not allowed to dupe refuse there.
”The woman was, however, arrested and handed over to the DPO in Festac to be charged to court. We are going to make her a scapegoat so that people will comply with waste management law,” he said.
The Supervisory Councillor on Environment, Mr Nonso Inekwere,said Amuwo-Odofin had maintained a clean environment because of the efforts of the chairman.
Inekwere said that the local government had engaged traders and residents on proper waste management, and the campaign was still on-going.
“We also share waste bags to them so that the refuse will be easy to evacuate.”
Inekwere appealed to Visionscape and the Association of Waste Managers of Nigeria work together in a bid to achieve a cleaner environment in the state.
Mr Hammed Mohammed, Chairman, Committee on Agric, Information and Environment, Oriye Ward C, Amumo Odofin LGA commended the council for its commitment to environmental sanitation.
Mr Taiwo Adewole, an environmentalist and Special Adviser to the Council Chairman on International Matters, noted that residents have taken undue advantage of the cancellation of the monthly environmental sanitation not to clean their environment. (NAN)