Lagos Taskforce Chairman, Akerele Reiterates Commitment To Environmental Safety, Public Order

By Cami Ezenwa

Ensuring environmental order in a state as diverse as Lagos is not an easy assignment but the chairman of the Lagos State Environmental Sanitation & Special Offences Enforcement Unit, CSP Adetayo Akerele, has stated that this is a task that must be done.

Akerele, who has remained unrelenting in pursuit of the mandate, made the reiteration at a well-attended media parley held at the taskforce’s head office, in Oshodi Lagos.

He told the media practitioners that the task of restoring sanity in the metro city and making it environmentally safe and convenient for all residents is a task that must be sustained.

According to him, the taskforce has been up to the task through a number of avenues thus:

• Routine advocacy and public sensitisation using the mass media
• Conducting regular raids to rid blackspots of criminal elements, dislodge drug gangs et al.
• Checkmating the nuisances of street traders
• Checkmating open defecation/urination and environmental degradation
• Dismantling and removal of slums/shanties
• Collaborative operations to fight and forestall kidnapping, quackery, human trafficking etc.
• Checkmating the dual menace of okada and one-way violations

CSP Akerele addressing the media parley, left, and right, showing a document to buttress a point

“It is also part of our duties to restore sanity in the metro city and ensure peaceful living for Lagosians

“Unfortunately, there are some people in our midst who do not want this to be so, whose actions and activities are in sharp contrast to the legally established mandates of the Taskforce.

“Of course, we as Taskforce cannot allow that”, Akerele promised.

Informing that the state was resuming monthly, voluntary environmental sanitation exercise effective from April 2026, with the target of improving public health, he added  that the taskforce would be fully active and involved

Akerele also commended sister agencies in the state collaborating to ensure that the state government’s resolve to ensuring peaceful and livable state for all was achieved, advising the public not to fall to the antics of some individuals trying to knock heads together, just to achieve their selfish purposes.

The taskforce chairman cited instances where some such people either misinterpret the motives or deliberately falsify the sincere actions of taskforce operatives on their assigned duties.

“The primary duty of the Lagos State Taskforce is to make Lagos, your Lagos, our Lagos, our metro-city state environmentally safe and convenient for all residents.

“We will continue to do our best to rid the state of all forms of environmental nuisance and we remain open to suggestions and genuine inputs from residents and positive minded citizens of the state

“We will also continue to refuse to cow or let the selfish interests or demands of individuals to distract or derail us from our fundamental duties and roles as the custodian of an environmentally friendly Lagos.

“To do otherwise is to denounce the confidence that His Excellency, the Governor of Lagos Mr. Babajide Sawoolu, on behalf of Lagosians reposed in us”, he stated.

Akerele, while stating that his office remained accessible to members of the public with genuine observations on how best to achieve an environmentally-friendly state, reminded the people that the law was in place to put those opposed to the ideals of a clean and environmentally sane state in their place.

While the journalists majorly commended Akerele for professional and committed performance of his duties, they however proffered suggestions on how the positive tempo could be sustained.