LAWMA sacks sweepers and contractor over illegal dumping on Oworonshoki–Berger axis
The Lagos Waste Management Authority (LAWMA) has disengaged some street sweepers, their supervisors and a service provider after investigations linked them to indiscriminate dumping along the Oworonshoki–Berger axis.
The authority also arrested two suspected illegal dumpers in the area. Managing Director Dr Muyiwa Gbadegesin said at the weekend that the action followed surveillance of a median that had become a recurring waste blackspot. The sweepers, he said, confessed to dumping there. They, their supervisors and the contractor were removed to show that staff and vendors in the waste system would be held to the same standard as everyone else.
“Our responsibility is to keep Lagos clean, and everyone involved in that responsibility must play their part. Where our investigations establish that anyone is contributing to the problem, appropriate action will be taken. There will be no exceptions,” he said.
Enforcement officers arrested Timileyin Ojo, a load carrier accused of using a wheelbarrow to dump waste on the median, and a suspected cart pusher accused of unauthorised collection in the same stretch. Both were taken to the Oshodi Task Force Office (Mobile Court) for investigation and possible prosecution under Lagos environmental laws.
Gbadegesin asked residents, businesses and collectors to use approved channels and assigned Private Sector Participants (PSPs) only. LAWMA will keep watching the Berger–Oworonshoki axis and other hotspots. Residents were urged to report dumping and illegal collection.
The episode is awkward because the people paid to clear the road are accused of feeding the pile. A blackspot that keeps returning is often a sign that the official chain is leaking: sweepers, supervisors or contractors finding it cheaper to dump on the median than to complete the trip to a proper site.
Disengagement and two arrests are meant to close that leak. They will matter if the median stays clear. If the heap returns under new names, the problem is not only a few workers. It is a system that still makes the illegal shortcut easier than the approved route.
