Lagos Govt Blames Open Defecation On Miscreants

Members of Otodo Gbame Community and environs protest the ongoing dredging and sand filling of their communities at Ikeja recently.

The Lagos State
Ministry of Information and Strategy has identified miscreants as persons responsible for open defecation in the state.
The Director of Public Enlightenment and Community Relations in the ministry, Mr Oluwatoyin Adeni-Awosika, who made this known in an interview with newsmen in Lagos, said such people engaged in the practice because they did not live in residential areas with proper toilets.
He, however, said that state government agencies were carrying out enlightenment campaigns to persuade individuals involved in open defecation to change their attitudes.
“When are these done? Certainly late in the night; it is difficult to monitor them.
“Once the persons doing it see somebody carrying a torch light or they see officials of security agencies, they run away.
“Most of the people who do this are the hoodlums, the homeless boys, and the garage boys.
“They are the ones who do not live in residential areas that have proper toilets; so you find they are the ones who defecate in the open.
“It is not done around heavily populated areas because there are toilets in residences; they do this around garages, road sides, railway lines, and the lagoon front.
“The education we give all these people is in their own languages, Pidgin English and yoruba, and then the Community Development Associations (CDAs) and the market leaders assist.
“Then in addition to that we have environmental sanitary officers from the Ministry of Health, who are all over the place; we are doing our own, everybody is involved in the awareness campaign now.’’