Lagos State Government has sought the support of sanitation officers in all the 20 Local Government and 37 Local Council Development Areas as well as market men and women in its drive to salvage Lagos environment from dirt and environmental degradation.
Speaking at a stakeholders’ session held at the Secretariat, Alausa, the State Commissioner for Local Government and Community Affairs, Hon. Muslim Folami , said that the present state of some markets in Lagos is worrisome as they pose a threat to the Clean Lagos Initiative of the State Government.
The Commissioner described a dirty environment as blight to the Mega City status of the State, stressing that it was expedient for the market men and women to collaborate with the sanitation officers at the grassroot to ensure a cleaner environment.
Responding to an observation earlier raised by the Iyaloja-General, Mrs. Folashade Tinubu-Ojo on the state of Lagos markets, Hon. Folami said that the plan of the present administration is to have a uniformed and standard market across the State, noting that Government does not want Lagos markets to be used as hideouts by criminals in our midst.
“An environment that is not clean will encourage all sorts of unscrupulous elements, to guide against this; leaders of each market should expedite actions and prevail on their members to imbibe the culture of cleanliness. We should not wait for an epidemic to happen before we start doing the right thing”, the Commissioner added.
Also responding to issue of compensation paid to owners of demolished markets, the Commissioner explained that due process was followed and that all the parties involved were compensated according to stalls previously occupied.
He urged the market women and men to key into government development plan, saying: “What we want from our market men and women is to key into the development plan of the State Government and cooperate with this present administration. We all know that development comes with sacrifices so whatever sacrifice that is needed to be paid for the overall development and realization of our dream Lagos should not be compromised”.
The Iyaloja-General had earlier berated the state Government for the demolition of Olorunsogo market in Onigbongbo LCDA, Ojodu Retail market and Alausa Mini market and for not paying due compensation to affected market owners.
She also used the occasion to seek for the State government’s assistance in order to enable the traders buy insurance policy that would protect them and their goods from eventualities, adding that this would reduce the burden of compensation to the market owners in case of losses or fire incidents.
