The Ogun State Government has shut down five Chinese-owned firms namely DL Plastics Limited, Dyschenghan Plastics, SH Agricultural Limited, Beautiful Fibre Limited, and Jincaicai Nigeria Limited for alleged assault.
The state also arrested some of their officials for allegedly assaulting and injuring law enforcement officers and state officials during the enforcement of a seal-up order.
The firms are located in the Ogere axis in the Lagos–Ibadan Expressway.
Abayomi Hunye, Special Adviser to the Governor on Environment and Managing Director of the Ogun State Waste Management Authority (OGWAMA), said the companies mobilised their workers to attack officials who had gone to enforce the order after repeated warnings.
According to him, the firms were repeatedly invited and officially notified of their environmental violations, including improper waste disposal, open waste burning, and refusal to engage government-approved waste collectors.
“These infractions are not only degrading their premises but also threatening their host communities and the state at large,” Hunye said.
He explained that despite six months of letters, invitations, and visits by government officials, the companies refused to cooperate. Notices of intention to seal their premises had been pasted on their gates for over three months but were ignored.
“When our officials eventually sealed the companies last Thursday by locking their entrance gates, the firms brazenly broke government chains and removed the seal order,” he stated.
To enforce compliance, OGWAMA officials, backed by law enforcement agents, revisited the premises. However, they were violently attacked by workers, leaving several officials injured and hospitalised. Hunye condemned the assault as “barbaric,” describing it as a blatant show of contempt for state authority.
“What is more disturbing is that these companies, apart from constituting themselves as environmental nuisances, had the effrontery to assault and inflict bodily harm on law enforcement officers and government officials,” he said.
He warned that the government would not tolerate lawlessness under the guise of foreign investment.
“Any of them caught will be prosecuted under the laws of the land,” Hunye declared