SHOCKER
Mutilated bodies found daily in Lagos
By Jossy Idam (jidam14@yahoo.com)
Saturday, December 15, 2007

•Kids salvaging syringe Photo: Sun News Publishing

Living index

The jigsaw puzzle about where missing persons go to in Lagos metropolis may have fallen into place. Saturday Sun has it on good authority that ritual killers lurking around hack people to death, dismember their victims, neatly pack them in cellophane bags and drop along major roads and streets of the place famed and praised as the City of Excellence.

In an interview with Saturday Sun , the managing director of Lagos State Waste Management Authority (LAWMA), Mr Ola Oresanya disclosed that the agency’s street sweepers are at pains and having a hard emotional time collecting and disposing of decapitated chunks of human flesh daily. “We pick trash on Lagos roads and I can tell you that no day we don’t pick up mutilated bodies neatly packed inside nylon bags and dumped along the roads and streets,” he revealed with an emotion –laden voice.

Ritual killers on rampage
Asked to explain further, the LAWMA boss pointed fingers at ritual killers in the state. “people are perhaps being killed for rituals and put in nylon bags or in LAWMA refuse bins,” he said.
He also directed his anger at trado- medical centres in the state which he accused of dumping pathological waste and placentas on the streets. With a deep seated anger he said.: “We also pick pathological waste from all these trado-medical homes. You see them- they will deliver women and throw the placentas on the street. They also cut off parts of infected people and throw them on the streets”.

Endangered kids
He is also irked that harpless, innocent children are being endangered by some unscrupulous street- corner chemists who commission them to rummage in dumpsites and litter bins for discarded syringes. Until lately when LAWMA officials became tough, children descended on dumpsites like vultures and scavenged for items such as syringes, discarded blood packs and other contaminated, dangerous objects which caught their fancy.

Seemingly oblivious of the oozing stench and rot and heaps of garbage, some kids still sneak into dumpsites to search for killer- treasures. Looking at their faces, the age range of the children can be put between six and eight. Seen on Monday and school hour, the kids were lost in the world of garbage, infection, early death and shallow graves.
These shocking discoveries, according to him, prompted LAWMA to embark on a segregated medical waste programme and to introduce coded bags for different types of waste in the state.

Hazardous electronic waste
The LAWMA boss is bothered by heaps of hazardous electronics dumped in the state. Simply tagged E-waste by him, the name, Saturday sun learnt is an acronym for old , disused computers, radios and television sets imported into the country and re- bagged with cellophane wraps as new ones. “The chemicals used in manufacturing the chips of the parts of the electronics are very dangerous. We call them PCB (polychlorobyfin). That’s why we are worried about the disposal of these dangerous components,” he lamented.

According to him, Lagos, is known all over the world as a dumpsite for E-waste. The city only ranks second to a village in China. He is disturbed that the case of the old electronics emit dioxin- a cancer – causing agent. “it is worst when the components are set ablaze as there are currently being done in Alaba and Ikeja,” he said.

World Bank to the rescue
To help Lagos tackle its heady waste problems, the World Bank has shelled out 66 million dollars to LAWMA. The money Saturday sun learnt that it is part of 200million dollars the World Bank gave the state for its Lagos State Metropolis Development and Governance Project. The LAWMA managing director, Oresanya said part of the money would be used to evacuate hidden refuse backlog in the state.