The Lagos State Government warned the general public, particularly unrepentant noise polluters, to desist from attacking its officials on duty or face the full wrath of the law.
The warning came on the heels of a clampdown by Lagos State Environment Protection Agency (LASEPA) to curb the menace of noise pollution in the state.
The General-Manager of LASEPA, Dr. Adedolapo Fasawe, that the agency clamped down on more than 20 facilities over various environmental related issues in its determination to curb the menace of environmental nuisances and further restore sanity and orderliness across the state.
Fasawe said in a statement on Sunday that due to the clampdown, there had been frequent attacks of the officials.
She said that unidentified hoodlums hired by facility owners to prevent the lawful application of the law had been obstructing the agency’s officials from carrying out their official duties.
The general manager said that law enforcement agents all over the world were not always in the good book of offenders, whose primary aim was to subvert law and pervert course of justice at all costs.
According to her, officials of the agency were attacked by hoodlums at the Westgate Louge, Omole and Sky Louge, Oko Oba while performing their duty to shut down the facilities for their persistent noise and failure to operate within the orbit of the law.
She said that negative consequences awaited the perpetrators as the officials represented the government whose motive was to protect the interest of the society against the interest of few self-centered defaulters.
”Enforcing environmental law in our society that thrives on impunity will require enlisting maximum support of the members of the public.
”It will require support especially from our clerics, opinion, political and market leaders to lend their voices to the campaign and condemn the unwarranted but coordinated attacks being launched on the officials while performing their duties,” Fasawe noted
She further addressed the on-going insinuations and campaign of calumny against the agency by some mischief makers that particular religion is being targeted in the fight against noise.
”Our operation devoid all religious coloration and no particular religion is targeted, our primary objective is to ensure decorum and sanity in the state.
”The agency in the past months has been recording tremendous success and which must be supported by all rather than an unwarranted attack of our intention by means of misinformation, misrepresentation and deliberate negative reports to bring the agency to disrepute and causes chaos amongst our people.
”We have deployed various innovations and techniques to tackle environmental pollutions, especially in the area of noise pollution all to no avail.
”Such techniques include engaging the public through advocacy, social mobilisation programmes, stakeholder’s forum, Alternate Dispute Resolution (ADR) and lastly the use of enforcement as last resort in maintaining sanity,” Fasawe said.
She said that voluntary compliance was more important to the agency than enforcement but regrettably people do not honour holistic path, hence, the need to use the provision of the law to curb the tide.
The general manager also said that some facilities were reopened after complying with the directive of the agency.
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