The Lagos State Environmental and Special Offences Enforcement Unit (Task Force), yesterday, started ridding the state off indiscriminate display of goods on the highways, road sides, kerbs and railway tracks across the metropolis.
  
A curb, or kerb, is the edge where a raised sidewalk or road median/central reservation meets a street or other roadway.
 
The agency was in Oshodi to enforce the law against street and highway trading and seized goods worth millions of naira.
 
According to Director, Press & Public Affairs, Lagos State Taskforce, Gbadeyan Abdulraheem, the agency also carried out an all night raid underneath ApongbonBridge where traders were last year asked to vacate the area  to forestall any environmental mishaps that could re-occur and could lead to loss of life and property.
   
The operations, which were supervised by the Chairman of the Agency, Shola Jejeloye, was in line with  state’s directive to all environmental enforcement agencies saddled with the responsibility of restoring sanity on the walkways, highways and rail tracks.
  
Jejeloye disclosed that several notices have been served on traders, especially those at Oshodi rail track where the agency carried out a sensitisation and a subtle plea on May 23, 2023 to discourage them from returning to the tracks, but it fell on deaf ears.
 
He said: “Our warnings have been sent out to them for as long as two years ago, but they don’t listen. We served notices at Fagba, where some people built shanties, kiosks from Fagba all the way to Pen Cinema and Isokoko, thereby shortchanging motorists and pedestrians who should enjoy free movement along that axis. 
 
“It is completely unfair to all Lagosiansand we will make sure that they are all cleared out with immediate effect.”
 
The agency also seized goods found on the rail tracks and urged market leaders to be at the headquarters of the agency for a round table engagement to foster a permanent solution to end this menace.
 
Jejeloye disclosed that the action was necessary following the reopening of EkoBridge after it had been shut for 15 months, after a fire outbreak had occurred due to the activities of traders haphazardly clustered under the Bridge.
 
According to him, it was necessary for the agency to take these steps at these locations and other strategic locations where the activities of street traders posed a major threat to the environment and general well being of Lagosians.