General secretary of Dredgers Association of Nigeria ( DAN) Mr Richard Ntan has washed his Association clean from the unmitigated and unwholesome environmental degradation by over twenty Dredgers at Era town in Oto Awori local government Development Area of lagos state, noting that the alleged Dredgers are not validated members of the registered Dredgers body.
Ntan reacted to media reports, which has gone viral over the callous and insensitive operations of the unknown Dredgers, lamented that such operators are behind the bad names given to dredging activities across the country, particularly in lagos which has pitted the organised and registered dredgers body against regulatory authorities who do not ask if such Dredgers seeking approvals truly belong to DAN.
” These are the consequences of government regulatory agencies in not helping to organise businesses in Nigeria but when troubles comes, all the good and bad people, in this case now, Dredgers will be lumped together” Mr Ntan further explained.
He called for a proper regulation and review of the operations in that vicinity and strict profiling of those alleged dredgers, and those found culpable should face extant environment regulatory laws. The community roads should be repaired, and the necessary social responsibility ecosystem be extended to them, adding that all the non state actors, the hoodlums, and land grabbers should be arrested and made to face the law.
” We at Dredgers Association of Nigeria do not condone illegalities, and where we found our members to have breached the law, we have never hesitated to intervene and find the right solution. But we noticed that government agencies will go and issue dredging permits to most of these alleged dredging companies, and when problem happens, they and the media will blame the organised Dredgers body. We are ashamed of what is going on in Era town and wish to join the community to call on all relevant regulatory bodies on environment, mining and inland waterways to quickly intervene and save the Era community, the DAN General secretary stated.
