No fewer than 94 social miscreants who have converted the rail tracks into their sleeping quarters have been arrested by operatives of the Lagos State Taskforce.
The miscreants were arrested during an enforcement operations conducted along Pen Cinema and Fagba railway corridor.
Officials said the operations were aimed at dislodging illegal occupants of the rail tracks who have also built shanties along the railway corridor.
City & Crime reports that the sting operation, which commenced in the early hours of Wednesday, was supervised by the chairman of the Agency, CSP Adetayo Akerele, who took illegal occupants and squatters in the corridor by surprise.
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Akerele disclosed that the action was necessary to provide residents around Fagba, Agege, and Pen Cinema railway routes a reprieve after series of complaints concerning the activities of criminal elements residing there.
He said the miscreants had shown a blatant disregard for the state’s environmental and sanitary laws.
The chairman further noted that the presence of squatters along the rail corridor was not only unhealthy but also hazardous.
He issued a warning to the ejected squatters not to return to the rail corridor, which was designed solely for the passage of trains.
Some of the recalcitrant squatters attempted to resist the Agency’s actions.
Akerele assured residents in Fagba, Agege, Pen Cinema, its environs, and train passengers that adequate patrols and regular surveillance would be carried out along the corridor to ensure that no squatters return to erect any shanties in the future.
He pledged to arrest and prosecute any individual or group attempting to return to the site.
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