Operation Let Lagos Breathe: LAGESC Removes 650 Shanties Beneath Idumota Bridge

In continuation of efforts to restore environmental sanity across the metropolis, the Lagos Environmental Sanitation Corps (LAGESC) popularly known as KAI in conjunction with the Lagos Waste Management Authority (LAWMA) on Thursday removed more than 650 illegal shanties and shops beneath the Idumota Bridge to dislodge traders occupying the base of the structure to display wares for sale.

Speaking at the aftermath of the exercise, the Corps Marshal of the Agency, Major Olaniyi Olatunbosun Cole (rtd) made this disclosure at the Agency’s Command Headquarters, Bolade-Oshodi.

According to him, ‘‘the clearance operation code named-Let Lagos Breathe, undertaken by our operatives in collaboration with LAWMA ensured that we dislodged defiant traders displaying wares for sale by erecting shops beneath the bridge which is hazardous to the integrity of the structure and capable of causing infernos’’.

Cole also mentioned that the clearance operation was activated to forestall a repeat of the Apongbon bridge incident which pointed accusing fingers at traders that erected electrical installations and cooling systems under the Apongbon bridge which caused the inferno.

The KAI Head also sounded respective warnings to traders in the negative habit of erecting illegal structures beneath bridges to desist from the act, just as he affirmed that defaulters will be made to face the full wrath of the law. Also, he mentioned that the operation will be continuous.

In his final remarks, the Corps Marshal read the riot act to street traders to refrain from hawking in traffic and displaying wares for sale on road setbacks, lay-bys, medians, verges, kerbs and gutter slabs which is in stark violation of the State’s Environmental Laws. He also enjoined transiting Lagosians to always embrace safety by using the pedestrian bridges when crossing highways in the State.