A 48-year-old man has been convicted and sentenced to 13 months community service at Kirikiri Prisons by a Special Offences Mobile Court in Oshodi on Monday for multiple sanitation offences.
The man, Makinde Rasaq, who was arrested with a Honda SUV filled with refuse last week at Lagos Island, faced seven counts charges. He pleaded guilty to all the seven charges and was subsequently sentenced to varying terms of imprisonment with an option of community service for all the offences, totalling 13 months community service which will be served at Kirikiri.
Rasaq’s offences included breach of peace, indiscriminate dumping of waste, non-patronage of Private Sector Partnership (PSP) operators, illegal transportation of waste without a valid license and obstruction of officers from carrying out their duties.
He was arrested in the act of illegally dumping refuse on Saturday night at the Tinubu fountain in Central Lagos. He is suspected to be part of a syndicate deliberately dumping refuse around the state to create a narrative that Lagos is dirty.
Rasaq was subsequently detained at Adeniji Adele Police station before he was handed over to Kick Against Indiscipline (KAI) officers for arraignment by the legal officials from the State Ministry of Justice.
Muyiwa Gbadegesin, the managing director of LAWMA, while speaking on Rasaq’s conviction, which went viral, said the message of the conviction is a declaration of zero-tolerance on indiscriminate waste disposal message to everyone.
The managing director warned residents to ensure proper waste disposal through patronage of the LAWMA accredited PSP operators as this is in accordance to the Environmental Laws of Lagos State.
He stressed that residents should desist from the unwholesome waste disposal as generation of waste is an unavoidable aspect of existence, adding that residents must always patronize the PSP for better service delivery.
