The Lagos State Government has announced plans to go after electricity distribution companies that engage in indiscriminate digging of the ground for their installations without seeking relevant approvals from required agencies.
The Chief Executive Officer, Lagos State Infrastructure Maintenance and Regulatory Agency, Oyekanmi Elegushi, disclosed this during a chat with the pressmen at his office in Ikeja on Wednesday.
He hinted that the planned clampdown by the state government followed several reports that some of the DisCos indulge in installing their infrastructure across the state without receiving necessary permits.
LASIMRA is an agency that is saddled with the responsibility of regulating and maintaining utility infrastructure, such as telecommunications companies’ fibre cables and other installations across public spaces within the geographical boundary of the state.
According to the LASIMRA boss, the government will hold a stakeholders’ engagement where issues affecting major players, especially DisCo’s unauthorised digging, will be discussed.
Elegushi said, “What we are doing now is that we are clamping down seriously on illegal digging, and a stakeholders’ meeting will happen sometime this year. We are a no-nonsense regime where things are done properly and where lawlessness will become a thing of the past. What belongs to the government will be given to it and will not be going into private individual accounts, especially some of these DisCos.
“The Federal Government has implemented a name-and-shame policy. We will start naming and shaming companies that are involved in this sort of attitude. Lawlessness and illegal digging without seeking appropriate permits before starting the project will no longer be condoned. What we want at the end of the day is a conducive environment for all businesses to thrive and then for the government to get what it is due to it.”
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