Criminals terrorise Community hides in Dumpsite

Rainy season is here again and Olamide Arowolo is already apprehensive. Arowolo’s street, Odubanjo, in Igando-Ikotun Local Council Development Area adjoins a dumpsite, and with each rainy season comes an incursion of smelly filthy water from the overflowed dumpsite onto the street.

So each year, residents of the area confront the problem with prayers that there will be no rainfall heavy enough to flood the dumpsite and consequently spill into the community.

“The dumpsite has been here for about a decade and we have been experiencing the problem since then. Whenever rain water fills the pit in the dumpsite, it overruns the community with dirty water and wastes. Before the rainy season, we always pray against heavy rainfall that can flood our community with foul water,

“When it happens, the street and the drainages are filled with the foul water. Some residents avoid going out so they will not have to step in the water. The polluted water could also affect our little children,” Arowolo said.

The community has reported the issue to the Lagos State Waste Management Agency, which controls the dumpsite, but the problem still persists in spite of some measures employed by the agency.

Since the siting of the dumpsite in the community about ten years ago, the community has grown bigger to expand from a few streets to about 25 streets which now make up Governor Road Community Development Association.

The CDA chairperson, Ibilola Akintokun, told our correspondent that the community once reported the situation to the LAWMA site supervisor and that action was taken to clear some drainages to ensure that floodwater remained in the pit of the dumpsite.

During our correspondent’s visit to the community, a foul odour from the dumpsite permeated the environment, forcing some of the residents to cover their noses with handkerchiefs.

The site was buzzing with activities with refuse trucks dumping refuse and scavengers, mostly foreigners, scrambling for items considered valuable enough to sell. Shacks line a part of the dumpsite where some of the workers rest in the day and sleep at night.

Arowolo, who described the dumpsite as a curse to the community, said residents had already grown tired of its effects on the area.

One of the other major effects of the dumpsite to the community concerns security.

The issue of security has also become a source of concern to the Residents’ Association Chairman for Raimi Ajibowo Street, Mr. Ganiyu Ajibowo, whose backyard overlooks the dumpsite.

Ajibowo was concerned that “all manners of people from the dumpsite have access to the community, causing various havocs.”

According to Ajibowo, several robbery incidents in the community have been linked to some of the foreigners, suspected to be illegal aliens, working at the dumpsite.

He said that earlier in the year, some robbers broke into a shop in the community, carting away all the goods.

Ajibowo said, “After taking all the goods, they locked the shop and burnt it to the ground to eliminate suspicions that a robbery had taken place there. Also two months ago, they did the same thing. They robbed another shop and burnt it. One day, some robbers were being chased in the night and one of them was caught by our security guard. He said that he had come from the dumpsite.

“We need more security in the area because of the hoodlums working at the dumpsite. Most of them are foreigners from Niger, Chad and so on and they are in Nigeria illegally. We have reported the issues at Igando Police Station and they sent some men here. The men arrested a few people but the situation is still the same.”

Less than two years ago, some arms were discovered in an abandoned vehicle on Raimi Ajibowo Street, which attracted the attention of police officers from Igando Police Station.

Another resident who did not want to be named, said it had become necessary for the community to raise an alarm over the influx of suspected hoodlums from the dumpsite into the community.

The source said, “The dumpsite is a no-go area because there are all kinds of people there and all kinds of activities go on there. They sell Indian hemp and other drugs there. I heard that the place is a hide-out for hoodlums and criminals. When they commit an offence and the police are looking for them, they come here to hide and no one will know that they are here.

“The place is strategic as a hide-out because no policeman will want to look for anyone on a dumpsite; dumpsites are usually places where people avoid.”

An official at the dumpsite who attended to our correspondent, denied that the dumpsite harboured criminals.

“It’s not true, this place is not a hide-out for criminals. But I’m not even supposed to speak to reporters,” he said.

Efforts to reach the Chairperson of Igando-Ikotun LCDA, Mrs. Adesina Williams, for comments were not successful. Her mobile number was not available and when our correspondent visited her office, an official in the Information office asked our correspondent to check back at a later date.

Calls and text message to the spokesperson for the Lagos State Police Command, Ngozi Braide, were not answered.

The Managing Director of LAWMA, Mr. Ola Oresanya, however, said he was not aware of the community residents’allegations against scavengers at the dumpsite.

He said, “I’m not aware of the security threat but we have a good relationship with the community residents, so they know how to reach us when they have complaints. They know we have never let them down.

“We’re aware of the (environmental) impact that the dumpsite may have on the environment. We’re not perfect but we respond promptly to complaints that get to us. We will do what we can about the (environmental) issue if we get the details. I don’t want to give a specific time now but we willl soon move the dumpsite away from the community.”