The Lagos State Government has clarified that residents are free to move around during the monthly environmental sanitation exercise, stating that there is no policy restricting movement on sanitation days.
The Commissioner for the Environment and Water Resources, Tokunbo Wahab, made the clarification on Saturday while responding to a social media user who claimed someone had been arrested at the Ikeja Police Station for moving during the exercise.
The user had asked the commissioner about the penalty for movement during the sanitation exercise.
In response, Wahab said any arrest based solely on movement during the exercise is illegal and does not reflect the position of the Lagos State Government.
"For clarity, there is no restriction on movement during the monthly environmental sanitation exercise. Therefore, arresting anyone because they moved during the exercise is unlawful and is not the policy of the Lagos State Government," he said.
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The commissioner explained that the monthly sanitation exercise was reintroduced to encourage environmental cleanliness across the state and is supported by the Lagos State Environmental Management and Protection Law, 2017.
He, however, stressed that while the law provides the legal backing for the exercise, it does not authorise any restriction on residents' movement.
According to him, the government's priority is to encourage Lagosians to see environmental sanitation as a shared civic responsibility rather than relying on arrests or enforcement.
"Our goal is to encourage residents to take environmental sanitation seriously as a collective responsibility for keeping Lagos clean, healthy and sustainable," Wahab added.
