As part of sustained efforts to mitigate environmental infractions in the State, operatives of the Lagos Environmental Sanitation Corps (LAGESC) popularly called KAI has impounded a truck conveying banned Styrofoam packs in Surulere Local Government Area of the state.
The truck with number plate AJK-140LG was impounded by the LAGESC officials attached to the Surulere Division of the Agency in Ojuelegba axis.
Speaking on the discovery, the Corps Marshal of the agency, Major Olaniyi Cole (retd) expressed dismay at the fact that despite the carpet ban on Styrofoam in the State, there are negative elements who stacked away these banned products in warehouses with intent to sell at reduced prices to unsuspecting buyers from other States.
According to him, ‘‘You would recall in January that the State Government via the Ministry of the Environment and Water Resources announced the carpet ban on the use and distribution of Styrofoam and other single-use plastics across the State in which adequate publicity and stakeholder engagement was implored to spread the word but some negative elements decided to withhold these inflammable products in their warehouses beyond the deadline’’.
Investigations also revealed that Iya Ireti Plastic Company situated in the Lagos Island area of the State sold the Styrofoam packs at a street value of ₦2,090,000.00 to a Cameroonian nationale with the hopes of moving the truckload of Styrofoam packs through Akwa-Ibom State for sales in the Central African country.
Cole expressed the commitment of the Agency to rid the State of environmental infractions just as he vowed to deal with environmental defaulters. He maintained that the distribution and use of Styrofoam remains banned in Lagos, citing the new constitution of a taskforce within the Agency which will consolidate on intelligence efforts aimed at flushing out these environmental defaulters.
