As part of efforts to curtail environmental abuse of the roadsides and forestall incessant accidents, Ogun State Government has begun demolition of shanties and banned indiscriminate parking of trucks at the interchange area of the Lagos-Sagamu expressway.

Senior Special Assistant to the Governor on Environment, Hon. Farouk Akintunde and his team, led an enforcement exercise to the Sagamu interchange axis with the collaboration of Ogun State Traffic Compliance and Enforcement Corps (TRACE), saying it was aimed at sensitising the people.

Akintunde stated that the reason for the demolition was necessitated by the nonchalant attitude of traders, who had been served an abatement notice to vacate the place. He pointed out that the area had been defaced by shanties and illegal truck parking, thereby constituting security threats and filthiness to the environment.

The Senior Special Assistant noted that Environmental Marshals had been designated to monitor the interchange axis to ensure full compliance with the directives, adding that TRACE officers would also be on standby to tow any truck parked illegally on the expressway.

Akintunde said violators of Environmental laws at the Remo Secondary School, Sagamu entrance who had been earlier served abatement notice for defacing State-owned schools which led to the sealed up of the area by the Ministry had been arrested for reopening their shops and would be sanctioned to serve as a deterrent to others.

He appealed to traders and motorists not to return to the evacuated areas to avoid future embarrassment, stressing that government is not comfortable with the environmental abuse of the roadsides.

Meanwhile, traders in the State have been warned to desist from illegal trading on walkways, drainages, roadsides, and under bridges to maintain a healthy environment that would be conducive for the economic growth and wellbeing of the people.

Hon. Akintunde made this known during an enforcement tour in Abeokuta and its environs, noting that trading in illegal places poses grave insecurities to pedestrians, traders, and motorists, saying the present administration is not interested in creating hardship for its citizen, but advocating for compliance with the environmental sanitation law. He enjoined traders to cooperate with the State government at ensuring a healthier, cleaner, and investor-attracting environment.

Akintunde admonished traders selling on walkways, roadsides, and under the bridge to move to State-owned approved markets to engage in legalised trading activities, saying “artisans such as vulcanisers are also banned from encroaching on walkways, they should display their working equipment behind walkways".