Soldiers celebrate Army National Day, clear Lagos streets of filth

Concerned by the mould of filth that has taken over streets of Lagos, officers of the Nigeria Army in large number on Saturday to carry out environmental sanitation in places like Ipodo and Olowu in Ikeja area of the state, among others.

The sanitation exercise, which is part of the activities to mark the 2019 Nigerian Army Day Celebration, which is an annual event, left the residents and business community in Ikeja as they woke up in the morning to see the heavy presence of hundreds of military men cleaning up the environment and clearing their drainages.

The soldiers, who came from the 9th Brigade, Nigerian Army Cantonment, Ikeja and led by the Commander of the Brigade, Brigadier-General Nasir Jega, who represented the General Officer Commanding 81Division of the Nigerian Army, Major General Sanni Yusuf, were mostly dressed in branded white vests and military camouflage trousers with the inscription NADCEL/COSAT 2019.

However, a few others wore complete military camouflage, while all were kitted with rain-boots, hand-gloves, mouth/nose guard and working with shovels, rakes, brooms with wheelbarrows and were seen carting away the refuse to standby compactors.

Speaking with the press, Jega said the sanitation exercise was part of the activities to mark the 2019 Nigerian Army Day Celebration which is an annual event.

According to him, the exercise is also holding simultaneously in two other locations in Lagos namely, Ikoyi and Ojo.

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“It is part of the task from the Army Chief of Staff that on this day we should go round and carry out this exercise so as to promote civil-military relations with civilians and communities around us,” he said.

Jega, while speaking on what informed the choice of Ipodo and Olowu for the exercise, said it was because the area was close to the Cantonment.

“Ipodo is a little bit closer to the cantonment and we chose it in order to relate with the community that is closer to us so that we have very good civil/military relations with them,” he said.

He implored everybody to continue with the sanitation exercise so as to keep the surroundings clean, adding: “They should be coming out to have their surroundings clean, having a good and clean environment will foster good health for everybody.”

A businessman, who owns a shop in the area, Mr. Ogbonna Onwuzuruike, said he felt good and happy about the cleaning, as he came to open his shop early in the morning.

“I am happy to see them come out en-masse to do the clean-up exercise, I feel so good and happy about it, it is not their duty, this is to show us a good example that we businessmen should clean our environment and make Lagos clean.

“It is good for us to continue with the trend, it is good for us businessmen to keep our environment clean,” he said

Onwuzuruike, who hails from Imo, also said he would want the state government to reintroduce the monthly environmental sanitation exercise in order to keep Lagos clean.