Stop hiding details of new environment law, CSOs tell Ambode

Civil society organisations have asked Akinwunmi Ambode, governor of Lagos state, to make public the “controversial” environment law which he signed on March 1. 

The groups said the inaccessibility of the document from the relevant ministries in the state government, two weeks after it was signed, fuels suspicion that its provisions are anti-people.

Ambode signed the law titled: Consolidated Laws on the Management, Protection and Sustainable Development on the Environment in Lagos State and Connected Purposes, after a public hearing organised by the Lagos house committee on the environment on February 9, and its subsequent passage by the house on February 20.

But civil society groups are saying they were unable to critique and make recommendations on the bill, as only a few CSOs were invited and that the 190-page document was made available to the invitees a day before the legislative exercise “which made it near impossible for in-depth critique and recommendations”.

In a statement issued in Lagos on Thursday, several groups faulted sections of the law which they described as “corporate buy-over of Lagos” in the guise of providing services.

The groups that signed the statement include: Environmental Rights Action/Friends of the Earth Nigeria (ERA/FoEN), Peace and Development Project (PEDEP), Joint Action Front (JAF), Friends of the Environment, Climate-aid, and Committee for Defense of Human Rights (CDHR).

Others are Africa Women Water, Sanitation and Hygiene Network (AWWASHNET), Justice Development and Peace Commission (JDPC) of the Catholic Church, Center for Dignity, Amalgamated Union of Public Corporations Civil Service, Technical and Recreational Services Employees (AUPCTRE), among others.