The Ogun State Government has activated an aggressive cleanup strategy to confront mounting waste challenges across the state, following a damning report that exposed widespread indiscriminate dumping and operational lapses in waste collection.
Through the Ogun State Waste Management Authority (OGWAMA), the government has commenced a “Special Operation” aimed at clearing accumulated refuse across major towns and residential corridors.
The newly appointed Managing Director of OGWAMA, Farouk Akintunde, disclosed that the intervention became necessary after a backlog of unattended waste built up prior to his assumption of office. He confirmed that all operational machinery has now been fully deployed across key urban centres including Abeokuta, Sango-Ota, Ijebu-Ode and Ifo.
According to him, the previously suspended “Night Operation” — a critical component of the state’s sanitation framework — has been reinstated with immediate effect to accelerate waste evacuation and restore environmental order.
Akintunde also revealed that after a strategic meeting with the Ogun State Association of Waste Managers (AWAN), long-standing issues affecting the operations of Private Sector Participants (PSPs) were resolved. The PSP operators, who are responsible for residential and commercial waste collection, have now resumed activities across their assigned zones to support the cleanup drive.
The intervention follows a recent publication that painted a troubling picture of Ogun’s sanitation landscape, describing heaps of refuse scattered across local government areas and warning that unchecked dumping was fast turning parts of the state into what it termed a “corridor of decay.”
Beyond operational reforms, the OGWAMA boss issued a strong compliance message to residents. He urged households to properly containerise their waste and hand it over to assigned waste managers instead of dumping refuse along roadsides or medians.
He warned that environmental enforcement will be stepped up, stressing that anyone caught disposing waste illegally — particularly on road medians — will face prosecution.
With the cleanup exercise now running simultaneously across multiple locations, the state government appears determined to reset its waste management system through enforcement, stakeholder collaboration and round-the-clock operations.
The success of the initiative, however, will ultimately hinge on sustained coordination between regulators, PSP operators and residents — because sanitation, as officials insist, is a shared responsibility, not a seasonal campaign.