Nigeria: Lagos Seals Another Market Over Environmental Infractions, Arrests Three

27 September 2023

During the enforcement process, a KAI operative was stabbed, the agency said.

The Agbado Oke-Odo market near Ile-Epo in Abule Egba has been sealed indefinitely by the Lagos Environmental Sanitation Corps (LAGESC), popularly known as KAI.

The market was sealed on Wednesday due to "identified environmental infractions like street trading, hawking, indiscriminate dumping of refuse and lack of general hygiene," Lukman Ajayi, KAI spokesperson, said in a statement.

Recently, the state authorities shut down the Oyigbo and Alayabiagba markets over proper waste disposal.

According to the statement, the corps marshal of the agency, Gbemisola Akinpelu, a retired police commissioner, said the closure was enforced following "petitions and complaints from Lagos residents about the deplorable level of filth, environmental degradation at the Agbado Oke-Odo market area and our intelligence team investigate these claims which turned out to be true, resulting in the closure of the market till further notice and arrests of suspects for obstruction."

She said that three persons -- Taiwo Abeeb, 53, Ismaila Adeniji, 35, and Akeem Kelani, 40, were arrested for obstructing and attacking their operatives "with dangerous weapons and ammunition."

The agency said the attack "resulted in a deadly stab wound of a KAI operative."

Ms Akinpelu said the suspects will be charged to court for prosecution.

The retired police chief emphasised the need for markets to maintain a high level of hygiene through appropriate dumping of refuse via approved PSP operators, adding that the setbacks, lay-bys of external market premises must not accommodate street traders and hawkers.

She also said that street trading remains banned in the state as there will be no hiding place for street traders and hawkers as part of a renewed drive to enforce environmental laws.

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