Noise pollution: Lagos threatens to shut worship centres

Lagos State Government yesterday warned religious centres to end noise pollution or face closure.

The Commissioner for the Environment, Mr. Tunji Bello, gave the warning at the kickoff of the 2013 ministerial press briefing at the Bagauda Kaltho Press Centre, Lagos State Secretariat, Alausa.

Bello expressed concern over the wave of complaints by the residents, who could no longer rest at home after returning from work as result noise coming from worship centres, even at night.

The commissioner said the state might, any time from now, be forced to clamp down on erring centres if such “unreligious” act was not checked.

He said: “We all worship God, but some are doing it excessively and I believe it is unreligious. A religious man should not do such; we have received a lot of cases.

We don’t want to be seen to be working against religious organisations or be shutting down churches and mosques.

“It’s an opportunity to let the public know it’s not good for us.”

Bello added that most of the centres were residential homes illegally converted to churches and mosques, urging the residents to forward their complaints to the relevant agencies.

He said: “There is a street in Agege where there are four mosques and eight churches. Most of them are actually illegal because it is not proper to convert residential premises to religious centres. We will send the Ministry of Physically Planning and the Lagos State Environmental Protection Agency, LASEPA, after you.

“We need to go back to physically planning before converting such areas to worship centres. We have told religious bodies that enough is enough and we would go all out to enforce our laws.

We are giving this warning so that when action is being taken, no one will feel they are being witch-hunted.” Bello also said the N400 million given to the state by Federal Government to cushion the effect of flooding, was still intact to assist disaster victims.

The commissioner also accused the Federal Government of not fulfilling its promise to collaborate with the state to bring sanity to the Nigerian Port Authority, NPA, area in Apapa. He said: “The clearing (of the Oshodi – Apapa Expressway) was done by Lagos and the money came from Lagos too.

The enforcement also in Ijora and Marine Bridge is being done by Lagos. “Last year, the Federal Government as a result of outcry especially by the media, felt jolted, came to Lagos and apologised to us, we met them last year and till then nothing has been heard.

“Our position on Apapa is this, we cannot take care of the ports, we are not in charge, we have tried our best and if we are not careful, the trailers may be back.”