Lagos State Waste Management Authority, LAWMA, have dragged five scavengers to a Lagos court where they were remanded in prison custody for allegedly making ends meet at their refuse dump site at Igando outskirt of Lagos.
The men include, Sunday Oyedele, 33, Waisu Ayeni, 23, Akinwumi Akintoye, 38, Fadeyi Sampson, 35, and Mathew Igene, 45.
They were arraigned before an Ikeja Magistrate’s court sitting in Abule Egba for illegal entry in the dump site.
The defendants with others had gone to the site to pick some useful items thrown away by the owners which they could sell to make some money to feed.
This did not go down well with LAWMA workers.
Their arrest followed a complaint by LAWMA officials to the police that some scavengers entered the site illegally.
But the defendants told our reporter that they had been scavenging at the site for some time before the new LAWMA workers came and started demanding money from them to enable them to enter the site.
They claimed that their inability to part with undisclosed amount of money daily caused their predicament, an allegation the workers declined to make any comment.
P. M.NEWS confronted some of the workers at the court on the issue of demanding money from them.
One of the LAWMA workers identified as Nurudeen told our reporter they would not comment, saying he was not authorized to speak on the matter.
P. M.NEWS gathered that the LAWMA workers contacted the police at Igando division who swoop on the scavengers at the site and arrested the suspects, while others escaped.
They were arraigned in the court on a four count charge of illegal entry, obstruction of LAWMA and conduct likely to cause a breach of public peace by illegally assembling at the site. The police calmed that the offence they committed was contrary to sections 44, 52, 117 and 338 of the Criminal Code Law of Lagos State of Nigeria 2011. They pleaded not guilty. The presiding Magistrate, Mr O. A. Komolafe granted them bail in the sum of N50, 000 each with two sureties in like sum.
The matter was adjourned till 13 August 2012 while the defendants were remanded in custody pending when they meet their bail condition.
Meanwhile, the residents of the defendants under a group, stormed the court singing solidarity song, condemning the action of LAWMA.
They said the victims resorted to scavenging because of the economic situation in the country, yet LAWMA went ahead to worsen their plight.
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