CITIZENS COMPASS— The Lagos Environmental Sanitation Corps (LAGESC) popularly known as KAI on Tuesday, August 13, 2024, impounded alcoholic drinks worth ₦1m during a raid on Olupese Terminal Park and Oshodi-Bolade garages on Tuesday.
This was disclosed by the Corps Marshal of the Agency, Major Olatunbosun Olaniyi Cole (rtd) at the Command Headquarters of the Agency at Bolade-Oshodi. According to him, ‘‘these drinks remain banned for sale in all parks and garages of the State and the street traders who have since been arrested will be prosecuted in accordance with the State Environmental Laws’’.
Cole highlighted the detrimental effects constituted by the consumption of alcohol being hawked for sale on the psychological, mental and emotional well-being of motorists transporting passengers across the State. Underscoring the need for commercial drivers to maintain the perfect state of mind, the KAI top man revealed that alcohol inhibits reasoning and leaves these drivers susceptible to wrong suggestions when transiting passengers. Also, Cole encouraged passengers to embrace safety by reporting commercial drivers in the habit of alcohol consumption while on duty.
The Corps Marshal equally read the riot act to street traders and hawkers to desist from their banned activities as enshrined in the Environmental Laws of the State just as he maintained that the resolve of the Agency in the war against street trading, displaying wares for sale in traffic, on walkways, setbacks, lay-bys, gutter slabs, road verges, medians and kerbs will be sustained and defaulters will be met with stiff opposition.
Citing the need for pedestrians in transit to embrace safety first by making use of pedestrian bridges situated across major highways in the State, Cole warned that defaulters are arrested on a daily by operatives of the Agency and made to face prosecution in a competent court of jurisdiction to serve as deterrents to others.
He said the seizure was part of concerted efforts undertaken by the State Government to mitigate the trend of alcohol consumption by commercial drivers across different parks and garages in the State.
