By Ibrahim A. Jagaba
A delegation from the Lagos State House of Assembly (LAHA), on Friday, 19th July, 2024, paid a working visit to the Lagos State Environmental and Special Offences Enforcement Unit (Taskforce ), headquarters, located within the safety arena, Bolade, Oshodi.
The Lagos legislature team for the visit consisted of the chairman of the Environment and Parastatals Committee, honorable Shabi Adebola Raheem and honorable Olusegun Ege Adebisi, chairman of the Housing Committee in the Lagos State House of Assembly; they were joined by a number of legislative aides.
The visit as pointed out by honorable Shabi, was an oversight function meant to appraise current state of affairs in the agency, with a view to revitalizing the taskforce for higher efficiency to achieve set goals in line with the Lagos State government vision and mission.
Honorable Shabi, used the medium to commend the new leadership of the agency under CSP Akerele Adetayo, noting that, the new chairman has started well on the job, citing his swift response and arrest of a potential epidemic situation in the state, which involved a seized contaminated frozen turkey meat, that was routinely disposed off by officers of the Nigeria Customs Service at the Afero dump site, Epe, which, however, suspiciously found it way into the hands of racketeers and was already being sold to unsuspecting residents for consumption before the taskforce bursted it and arrested suspects linked to the illicit racket.
Concluding his address, honorable Shabi, assured the new chairman that, every lawful review and steps necessary to inject more life into the agency will be acted upon with the required speed; he urged CSP Akerele and his team to work harder in order to elicit and justify government attention and commitment in the agency going forward.
Speaking in a similar vein, honorable Olusegun Ege Adebisi, commended the new spirit of getting the job done as being demonstrated under CSP Akerele; he however, challenged the new Chairman and his team to redouble their efforts, just as he advised that, more efforts must be invested into strategic dissemination of information on the laudable exploits of the agency for Lagosians to appreciate more, going forward.
Responding to the addresses of the honorable members, CSP Akerele, expressed the agency’s appreciation for the official visit by the Lagos legislature, adding that, the action will give them a positive push to buckle up and deliver more.
The Taskforce charman, seized the opportunity to highlight challenges faced by the agency, which include, depletion in operational fleet as a result of wear and tear, noting that, the current fleet of Hilux operational vehicles in use at the agency, were purchased over 15 years ago; shortage of operatives leading to constraints and under performance, need for training and retraining of personnel to enhance service delivery and civil relations, the challenge of unstable power (electricity) at the headquarters, which drastically affects operations, CSP Akerele said, in conclusion.
