Showdown with Ambode imminent as Lagos Assembly disowns Visionscape, orders reinstatement of PSP

The Lagos State House of Assembly Thursday charged local government executives in the state to reinstate the Private Sector Partnership (PSP) operators in their areas for onward collection of refuse.

The house also disowned Visionscape Sanitation Solutions Ltd, which is currently managing collecting refuse in the state.

The resolution followed an urgent matter of public importance raised by Mr Gbolahan Yishawu, the Chairman, House Committee on Budget and Economic Planning over heaps of refuse scattered all over the state.

Yishawu, who said that there were several heaps of refuse on Lagos roads.

“Some refuse are being taken to Epe and Ikorodu but these places are a bit far now.

“We used to dump the refuse in Olusosun, but the place was gutted by fire. We can give the place to private companies.

“The sanitary landfill in Epe is not being utilised and the transfer loading stations too are not working effectively.

“It is not all the PSP operators that are working. Maybe, we can recall the PSP Operators and reopen Olusosun and the landfill sites should be operated properly,” he said.

The Majority Leader of the House, Mr Sanai Agunbiade, said that heaps of refuse were worse in Ikorodu.

According to him, for the state to have good sanitation, a law on environmental sanitation was passed in the state.

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“The refuse on the roads and on the streets are hazardous to the people. Flies from the refuse perch on the food people are eating, thus exposing them to health hazards.

“One day, Olusosun will not be able to accommodate refuse any longer. It will be better if we can change our policy on refuse disposal.

“I will suggest that we should invite the people in the Ministry of Health and those in the Ministry of the Environment to know their challenges.

“The refuse situation has become an eyesore in Lagos State. We should invite the people in charge,” Agunbiade said.

Also, Mr Bisi Yusuff, representing Alimosho Constituency 1, who observed that Visionscape were not delivering on the scope of their job, urged the House to look at the situation critically and urgently.

The lawmakers took turns to decry the poor state of refuse management across the state.

In his ruling, the Speaker of the House, Mr Mudashiru Obasa, directed the Chairmen of the 20 local governments and 36 Local Council Development Areas to engage PSP operators to resume full operations.

Obasa also directed the Clerk of the House, Mr Azeez Sanni, to invite the Commissioner for the Environment, Mr Babatunde Durosinmi-Etti to appear before the House on the matter next week.

He said the assembly did not know anything about Visionscape.

According to him, there are three arms of government — the Legislature, Executive and Judiciary — and the executive arm ought to have consulted with the House on Visionscape before engaging the company.

“We insist that we don’t know anything about Visionscape because we were not consulted before they started work.

“We once wrote the Commissioner for Finance, Mr Akinyemi Ashade not to pay Visionscape again and that he would return any money he paid to them after our instruction to the coffers of the government.

“We will go to that when the time comes but we have to do the needful now.

“We call on the 20 local governments and 37 LCDAs to have meetings with the PSP operators to go back to work and they should start paying them and make the residents to start paying the operators. We have to avoid epidemics and be proactive,” Obasa said.

 

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