12 major streets on VI, Ikoyi cleaned up —Tunji Bello

The Chairman of the Special Committee on Clean-Up of Ikoyi, Victoria Island and Lekki, Mr Tunji Bello, on Sunday, said the progressing exercise has already cleaned up seven major streets in Victoria Island and five in Ikoyi.

The chairman, who spoke with newsmen after an unscheduled visit to some of the areas being cleaned-up on Ahmadu Bello Way and Ozumba Mbadiwe, said the committee has decided to take the clean up exercise in the listed streets in batches to ensure sustainability and effectiveness.

Mr Bello was joined by other members of the CLEAN-Up exercise, including the sole administrators of Iru-Victoria Island and Ikoyi-Obalende LCDA, Princess Aderemi Adebowale and Mr Felix Ona-Olawale, officials of the Task Force on Special Offences and members of VIIRA on the inspection.

He listed the streets already cleaned–up in VI to include Water Corporation Drive, Ahmadu Bello Way, Adetokunboh Ademola, Bishop Aboyade Cole Street, Ajose Adeogun, Ligali Ayorinde Street, Ozumba Mbadiwe while those already touched in Ikoyi are Awolowo Road, Falomo Roundabout, Kingsway Road, Glover Road and Bourdillon Road.

He explained that the committee has ensured that for each of the areas where street traders were dislodged or shanties demolished, operatives of KAI were positioned to ensure that such people or recalcitrant traders do not return.

Tunji Bello added that for setbacks where horticulturists harbouring street traders, such as the ones at Awolowo Road and Ajose Adeogun Street were operating, they have been dislodged; with the men of the State Parks and Gardens Agency on ground to secure such areas for greening.

“On Ahmadu Bello Way, where we have a lot of infractions such as illegal parking by tricycles and conversion of median walkways to parking space and setbacks by yellow taxis, car hire services, companies without parking lots, all such vehicles which were not removed after due notices, have been towed away to ensure free flow of traffic.”

“Even on the same Ahmadu Bello Way, all those who have turned the road to a major depot for charcoal have been removed and the spaces secured with motorised KAI patrol vehicles.”

“At the Eko Atlantic City end of Ahmadu Bello Way, which has been taken over by miscreants and undesirable elements that masquerades as religious worshippers, who sleep and defecate on the stretch of the fence, have all been taken away and the area cleaned up through combined operations by men of the state Task Force on Environmental and Special Offences, the Waste Management Authority (LAWMA) and Environmental Health Officers of Iru-Victoria Island LCDA,” he stated.

He said the exercise has also provided an avenue for security agencies to dislodge criminally minded people, who reside in several abandoned land spaces and buildings in areas like Ligali Ayorinde that served as brothels and drinking joints.

Mr Tunji Bello said vegetal nuisances that come with overgrown weeds and shrubs that dot many frontages and properties at Lugard Avenue, Kingsway Road and Bourdillon Road are continually being cleared to ensure an aesthetically beautiful environment.

He reiterated that the Special Task Force is committed to carrying out the mandate of the committee as spelt out during its inauguration by the governor and would ensure that all environmental nuisances which dot the area are removed in a steady and systematic manner.