The acting General Manager of the Lagos State Planning and Environmental Monitoring Authority (LASPEMA), Olanrewaju Kazeem, has reiterated the determination of the agency to regulate the activities of scrap dealers in Lagos State.
Kazeem assured that the agency would collaborate with other agencies of government to work out how best to regulate the activities of metal scrap dealers to enhance the security of lives and properties in the state, in addition to holding regular meetings with stakeholders and law enforcement agencies.
At stakeholders’ meeting with the officials of Kick Against Indiscipline (KAI), the law enforcement arm of the state Ministry for the Environment, on Thursday, at the Secretariat Alausa, Ikeja, the acting general manager said, “We need to streamline the activities of scrap metal dealers through effective collaboration between our agencies and the support of other agencies of government.”
He said that the indiscriminate activities of scrap metal dealers in Lagos is a threat to the lives and properties of law abiding citizens of the state, decrying the criminal activities of some individuals who hide dangerous weapon under the guise of being scrap metal dealers to perpertrate their dubious activities.
The LASPEMA boss emphasised that the agency was trying to reach out to genuine operators by holding interactive meetings with them as well as organising seminars and workshops on rules and regulations guiding their operations.
“We want to collaborate with the police and other law enforcement agencies, particularly KAI since they know them better and can identify the blackspots. We will continue to meet with the scrap metal dealers at their various points, sensitize and hold seminars with genuine operators, capture their data according to their zones and give operators zonal unique colour identification to avoid mix up with criminal elements.”
“The meeting is ongoing and so far we have met with Falomo, Agege and Marwa zones. They will operate within their zones and have name tags and stickers for security reasons and for identification. They will no longer be allowed to operate on highways during the day except from 6.00pm upwards”.
Responding, the KAI Marshal General, Jimoh Amusat, expressed the desire of the organisation to partner with LASPEMA on curbing the activities of scrap metal dealers, saying that security is an essential component of the present administration’s vision of a Lagos that is clean, secure and prosperous, built on service, equity and justice.
According to him, “We must work together and share our experience in order to streamline the activities of the the metal scrap dealers as well as ensure that they abide by the stipulated guidelines towards a clean environment.”