Street cleaners protest Lagos new waste management
Hundreds of roadside cleaners employed under the Lagos State Waste Management Agency (LAWMA) have taken to the streets to protest a government decision they say will sideline them in the newly introduced waste management system tagged, "Cleaner Lagos Initiative (CLI)" which took effect fully in January this year. The protesters comprising majorly women were at […]
Hundreds of roadside cleaners employed under the Lagos State Waste Management Agency (LAWMA) have taken to the streets to protest a government decision they say will sideline them in the newly introduced waste management system tagged, "Cleaner Lagos Initiative (CLI)" which took effect fully in January this year.
The protesters comprising majorly women were at the Regional Office of Daily Trust in Lagos to express their angst and call on Governor Akinwunmi Ambode to come to their aids as the new system has failed to capture their interest.
They also said nobody has given them letter of disengagement and that they continue to operate on the streets and major roads in Lagos but they were being told informally that their service is no longer needed.
The LAWMA Cleaners who normally wear red coat and cap disclosed that they have not received salary for three months.
Representative of the protester, Adekunle Lawal who spoke with Daily Trust said they were earlier invited for test to be captured in the CLI system but they later found out that it was only the cronies of officials in charge that were engaged and given the uniform coat to operate.
He said: "They have not paid us for the past three months. They said they were not going to pay us since we have not collected the Cleaner Lagos Uniform.
"We found out that they were giving the uniform to their boyfriends and girlfriends. The supervisors are being sidelined.
"We support the Cleaner Lagos Initiative but they are doing it wrongly. We support the Governor. We voted for him and we will continue to vote for APC but he should please help us. Some of us are widows, some of us are widowers. We don’t have any other means. Our children are out of school.
"We were invited to come for test twice at Agege Stadium. After the test, they said they would give us employment but up till today majority of the LAWMA Cleaners were not given employment.
"And they are saying that there is no longer LAWMA and nobody has given us disengagement letter and we are still working. Those who are being employed did not go for the test. This job is a very serious business."
When contacted, Commissioner for Information and Strategy, Mr. Kehinde Bamgbetan said the affected cleaners would be deployed to other agencies while some would move to Visionscape, the company handling the CLI programme.
He said LAWMA is no longer involved in cleaning work but it now functions as a regulator, urging the protesters to be patient and that their monies would be paid in due course.