The Lagos government has disclosed that the National Union of Road Transport Workers has agreed not to operate between 6:30 a.m. and 8:30 a.m. during the reintroduced environmental sanitation on Saturdays.

Olatunbosun Cole, the corps marshal of the Lagos State Environmental Sanitation Corps, told the Peoples Gazette on Friday about plans to enforce a “controlled movement”.

“What we mean by that ‘controlled movement’: we had a stakeholders’ meeting with the National Union of Road Transport Workers,” said Mr Cole. “They said they will not allow their vehicles to move between 6:30 a.m. and 8:30 a.m. That is, they will not allow any of their commercial vehicles to leave the park until after 8:30 a.m.”

However, the LAGESC chief said the “controlled movement” would not impose any vehicular restrictions on private vehicles.

“That’s all the more reason it’s being limited to two hours. People with private vehicles can go out. But to achieve at least a reasonable level of compliance, at the meeting with NURTW, it was agreed that between 6:30 and 8:30, their vehicles will not be loaded,” the LAGESC boss explained. “Once people don’t see vehicles on the road, definitely, they will be forced to stay at home and do the clean-up exercise.”

Per the Lagos State Environmental Sanitation Law (Cap. L27), which mandates participation in the exercise and prescribes penalties for non-compliance, Mr Cole reiterated that no one would be penalised during the exercise, but noted that residents whose environments are deemed unclean by officials during the period will be prosecuted.

He said, “People on essential duties, nurses, doctors  who have vehicles, are free to go out, once they are mobile, but there might not be many vehicles on the roads to convey people to their various destinations.

“Let me just cite an instance. Let’s say you’re staying at a place called number four. On the day of the environmental sanitation, you refused to clear your gutters and the surroundings. Is that not an offence? Instead of you clearing your surroundings, some people will come out to play football on the roads, you didn’t pack your gutters or empty your garbage. It’s an offence. We’ll arraign them before a court to determine their punishment.

“It’s only in Nigeria that you must tell somebody to clean their surroundings. Why should you be told before you clean your surroundings? That’s where we live with our children. On that day, the Lagos State Waste Management Agency vehicles will be moving around to pack dirt. Everybody will also go around that day, including the first lady, the head of service. From time to time, there will now be some kind of adjustments until we get it right.”