Lagos State Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu has given a 72-hour deadline to occupants of shanties and makeshift structures built along the median of the Lagos-Badagry Expressway, warning that a large-scale demolition exercise will begin next week.
The governor announced the directive on Saturday after taking part in the monthly environmental sanitation exercise in Surulere Local Government Area alongside his wife, Ibijoke Sanwo-Olu.
According to Sanwo-Olu, enforcement teams will move into the area to clear illegal structures along the expressway corridor, beginning from Orile-Iganmu through Okokomaiko.
He stressed that the operation was aimed at restoring the highway median and protecting public infrastructure.
He said, “This is the final notice to everyone occupying the median of the Lagos-Badagry Expressway. From next week, we are coming to clear the entire median. Everything there will go. Every illegal structure will be removed.
“It is not meant to be a market. It is not meant to be a place where people erect structures. It is a highway median, and we must preserve it, especially considering the huge public investment on that corridor.
“It’s a 10-lane highway that was built with the resources of our taxpayers. I will not fold my arms and allow them to turn that international gateway into a slum.
This is a notice that I am giving officially to everybody on that corridor. We are starting next week, and we are going to deploy thousands of men there.”
Speaking on the state’s waste management initiatives, the governor disclosed that Lagos would soon expand its waste collection capacity with the addition of 150 compactors. He also revealed plans to deploy waste tricycles to inner communities to improve refuse collection.
Sanwo-Olu further said the government was investing in long-term waste management infrastructure, including a modern material recovery and recycling facility expected to process about 4,250 metric tonnes of waste every day.
He appealed to residents to complement government efforts by disposing of waste responsibly and paying their waste collection bills promptly.
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“Waste management is not the responsibility of government alone. It is a collective responsibility.
“Residents must also play their part by paying for waste collection services. That is what enables the PSP operators to continue providing efficient services.”
The governor also encouraged parents to involve their children in sanitation exercises, saying early exposure to environmental responsibility would help build a cleaner, healthier and more sustainable Lagos.
Meanwhile, the Commissioner for the Environment and Water Resources, Tokunbo Wahab, inspected the Olusosun Landfill after the sanitation exercise and said the state was moving away from its long-standing linear waste management model.
He explained that the ongoing material recovery facility project at the dumpsite would ensure waste generated across the state is converted into useful products instead of simply being dumped.
“This place will be one of the transfer loading stations that will transfer about 2,500 metric tonnes of waste a day to the material recovery facility that will be located in Ikorodu.
The target is for it to commence operations before the end of the year, so we just have to come and see what they are doing.
“We can’t sustain the linear waste management system that we have practised for over four decades, which simply means we have been used to collect and dump. Collect and dump cannot be sustainable. Even if we leave climate issues aside, we simply do not have the land for it.
“So let us make waste a resource—for wealth, for energy, and for many other purposes. That is the transition we are going through now.”
Wahab urged residents to remain patient with the government as it continues implementing reforms designed to modernise waste management across the state.
