Video on sale of branded waste baskets not from us, says Lagos Govt

The viral video in which some uniformed men were captured promoting the sale of a branded waste basket purporting to be from Lagos State Government, was at the weekend disowned by the State Commissioner for Environment and Water Resources, Tunji Bello.

All the characters in the viral video are fraudsters who do not represent the state government or any of its agencies, according to a statement signed by Kunle Adeshina,  Director, Public Affairs in the Environment ministry.

“There is no unit or agency under the Ministry of the Environment and Water Resources that goes by the name “Lagos State Vehicle Waste Basket (Lavwab) Enforcement/Compliance” as portrayed in the branded vehicle which the fraudsters operated from”, said the commissioner.

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He added that the dubious intent of the criminals in the video could be “deduced from the fact that they operated from inside a van in an automobile workshop and were very dodgy about the kind of enforcement exercise they were purportedly carrying out”.

Explained Bello, while the Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu administration had always encouraged all buses, trucks and articulated vehicles to provide waste baskets in their vehicles to encourage people not to litter the roads and streets, it has never prescribed any branded waste basket.

The development, said the commissioner, has been communicated to security agents to “spread their dragnets towards apprehending the criminals and their cohorts wherever they operated from and bring them to book”.

The commissioner enjoined members of the public to report any incident of anyone purporting to represent the state government and “coercing them to purchase any particular brand of waste baskets to be placed in their vehicles.”

Bello encouraged owners and operators of buses, trucks and articulated vehicles in the State to continue to provide waste baskets of their choice in their vehicles as part of efforts to discourage littering and promote a culture of proper waste disposal.