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Tokunbo Wahab: Oko-Oba Abattoir Will Remain Sealed Until Operators Comply With Environmental, Health Standards

Lagos Environment Commissioner Tokunbo Wahab says Oko-Oba Abattoir will stay sealed until operators fully comply with health and environmental standards

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Lagos State Commissioner for the Environment and Water Resources, Tokunbo Wahab, has said that the government will not reopen the Oko-Oba abattoir in Agege until its operators meet minimum environmental and health standards, following what he described as shocking and unacceptable violations at the facility.

Speaking in an interview with ARISE NEWS on Sunday, Wahab said the situation at the popular meat market had become intolerable, following repeated warnings from the Ministry of Agriculture, recounting how officials discovered severe health risks including animal blood, faeces, and slaughter waste being dumped into public drainage channels, and traders sleeping and defecating inside animal pens.

“What we saw is not something you want to describe on air,” Wahab said. “People had fully occupied pens built for animals, sleeping there, defecating there, and pushed the animals out. And then by the time we moved around, blood and the waste all over the system. The channels that were constructed outside the place had been destroyed. And by the time we got to where they slaughtered the animals, I’m like, no, this cannot be happening in Lagos.”

He added that animal blood and waste were being dumped into surrounding public drains, creating a perfect storm for a public health disaster.

“A lot of things could have happened from there, cholera outbreak or any other thing could have happened from there,” he warned.

According to him, traders had abandoned mechanised and semi-mechanised slaughter systems in favour of unsafe, manual slaughter practices, while repeatedly defying state regulations and violently resisting enforcement — to the point where Operation MESA, a joint military task force, was deployed. He confirmed that the Ministry of Agriculture had previously tried to manage the situation internally but eventually petitioned the Ministry of Environment to step in and arrest the environmental collapse.

Wahab said the market will remain sealed until operators stop dumping waste into public drains, begin using the existing effluent treatment systems and mechanised facilities, and commit to sustainable hygiene and environmental practices under new guidelines, and it will only be opened “as long as they are ready and willing to comply with the minimum standard.”

“We are not going to open until they are ready to comply fully.” he said. He described the shutdown as a “first-level consequence”, warning that more penalties may follow after a full review by the supervising ministry.

He rejected what he called the “blackmail” of using culture or religion to justify environmental non-compliance, saying Lagos would not bend to unsafe practices under the guise of tradition.

“This idea that you can keep blackmailing on the grounds of religion is not sustainable,” he said.

The commissioner also drew a link between such practices and broader environmental degradation in Lagos, including annual urban flooding. He explained that while climate change, particularly sea level rise and excessive rainfall, is a key factor, much of the flooding is caused by human defiance of planning laws.

He stressed that Lagos is a coastal city below sea level, where drainage efficiency depends on maintaining free-flowing water channels, green spaces, and responsible waste disposal — all of which are undermined when people build on wetlands or dump into drains.

“We are a coastal state that is below the sea level. And by knowing that we have the right of way for our drainage channels. For instance, if you want to build close to a primary channel, you must leave six metres both sides. Six metres will enable us to cut away and maintain the channel. If the secondary collector is three metres both sides, you must leave it. But when people choose to be very bad in their approach to environment, they build on those channels, believing that over time, they’ve always gotten away with it without consequences. And then the law provides there are consequences for bad behaviour. And the environmental law that was signed in 2017 gives the ministry the power to remove those contraventions on your stormwater paths,” he said.

In response to questions about elite impunity, Wahab said both wealthy developers and civil servants have faced enforcement, noting that erring civil officers have been disciplined through the Public Service Management Board, and that buyers of illegal properties have little legal recourse.

The commissioner also confirmed that the state has removed over 1,100 contraventions blocking stormwater routes, planted over 20,000 trees through LASPARK, banned styrofoam packaging due to its non-biodegradable and carcinogenic properties, and will expand the ban to single-use plastics from 1st July 2025. “These are tough decisions we have to make. But we’re doing it for the overall public interest,” Wahab said.

Looking ahead, Wahab reassured Lagosians that recent drainage projects would mitigate flooding, but urged citizens to take ownership of the environment. “At the end of the day, let us take ownership of our environment. If nature says to us there will be heavy rainfall, that there will be tidal sea level up, and then there will be excessive heat, we should not add the human element to it.”

Ozioma Samuel-Ugwuezi

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