Ladipo traders resort to self-help, burn refuse heaps

In apparent resort to self-help, traders at the Ladipo auto-spare parts market along Toyota bus-stop, Oshodi-Apapa expressway, have embarked on burning their waste, majorly e-waste materials, after waiting in vain for weeks Visionscape Sanitation Solutions, the waste management utility company contracted by the Lagos State government to evacuate the heaps of refuse from the market.

It would be recalled that some weeks ago, the Lagos State House of Assembly ordered the Private Sector Partnership (PSP) operators managing waste before the introduction of Visionscape, to return to work. Following the motion, 400 PSP operators were engaged in a new deal to work out modalities of waste collection and disposal in the bid to keep the megacity clean.

But it seems the new arrangement is yet to yield the desired result as many parts of the state are still littered with heaps of refuse.

During their weekly environmental sanitation where markets in Lagos are not opened until 10:00a.m. Ladipo trader were seen setting the mounting wastes in several parts of the market on fire to reduce the stench oozing out from the refuse heaps.

Some of the traders who spoke to The Guardian alleged that Governor Akinwunmi Ambode had abandoned governance in the state after losing his second term bid to Mr. Babajide Sanwo-Olu. “There was nothing else we can do than to burn the refuse blocking the drainage and spilling onto the road.”