Noise pollution: LASEPA seals churches, mosques, water parks, others

THE Lagos State Government on Sunday shut down churches, mosques, water parks and 18 others over noise pollution and other environmental related issues.

The exercise, which cut across churches and mosques, witnessed the sealing of the listed places.

They include; Water Parks at Ikeja; West Gate Louge, Omole, Magodo Phase 1; Skylouge Bar, Oko Oba; Mallam Garba Mosque, Iloro; Dick Jockey outlets, Dopemu, Agege; Christ Embassy Church, Iyana Ipaja and El Castillo Homes, Abule Egba.

Others are; Triple Z Hotel & Suite, Shasha, Akowonjo; Regia Luxuria Hotels & Suites, Alimosho; Kings of Diamonds, Coker; Barrel Louge, Opebi; Voice Of Elijah Christian Church, Ikeja; Celestial Church of Christ, Ilupeju and an unnamed mosque at Ahamdiyah all in Lagos.

General Manager of Lagos State Environmental Protection Agency (LASEPA), Dr Adedolapo Fasawe, confirmed the closure, warning unrepentant noise polluters to desist from the act of attacking officials of the agency while discharging their duties or face the full wrath of the Law.

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According to her, LASEPA officials were attacked by hoodlums at the Westgate Lounge, Omole and Sky Louge, Oko Oba while performing their duty to shut down the facilities for engaging in persistent noises pollution.

The general manager, in a statement by the agency’s Public Affairs Officer (PAO), Bola Ajao, hinted that the unidentified attackers were hired by facility owners to prevent the lawful application of the law in the state.

Fasawe, who argued that law enforcement agents globally were not always in the good book of offenders, whose primary aim were to subvert law and pervert cause of justice at all cost, however, warned that negative consequences awaited these perpetrators as the officials represented the government, whose motive was to protect the interest of the society against interest of few self- centred defaulters.

This was as she said that enforcing environmental law in the society that thrives on impunity would require enlisting maximum support of the members of the public, especially the clerics, opinion, political and market leaders.

“Enforcing environmental law in our society that thrives on impunity will require enlisting maximum support of the members of the public, especially our clerics, opinion, political and market leaders to lend their voices to the campaign and condemn the unwarranted but coordinated attacks being launched on the officials while performing their duties,” she said.

The general manager, however, debunked allegations that particular religious believers were the point of target in the fight against noise pollution,” declaring that the agency’s operation was devoid of all religious colouration as no particular religion was targeted.

“Our operation devoid all religious colouration and no particular religion is targeted, our primary objective is to ensure decorum and sanity in the state. The Agency in the past months has been recording tremendous success and which must be supported by all rather than an unwarranted attack of our intention by means of misinformation, misrepresentation and deliberate negative reports to bring the agency to disrepute and causes chaos amongst our people,” Fasawe charged.

“We have deployed various innovations and techniques to tackle environmental pollutions, especially in the area of noise pollution all to no avail, such as engaging the public through advocacy, social mobilization programmes, stakeholder’s forum, Alternate Dispute Resolution (ADR) and lastly the use of enforcement as last resort in maintaining sanity,” she added.

Fasawe, while disclosing that some facilities were reopened in the past after complying with the directive of the agency, maintained that “voluntary compliance is more important to the agency than enforcement but regrettably our people don’t honour holistic path hence the need to use the provision of the law to curb the tide.”