Assembly demands guidelines on public toilets

[Punch]

Lagos State House of Assembly has directed the Ministry of Women Affairs and Poverty Alleviation to set a standard and guideline on how the state public toilets should be.

This was part of the recommendations of the report of the Committee on Women Affairs, Poverty Alleviation and Job Creation on the poor state of public toilets in the state.

The House also ordered eateries, public and private institutions to provide befitting toilets, according to a statement by the Assembly in Lagos on Wednesday.

Presenting the report before the Committee of the Whole, its chairman, Mr. Omotayo Oduntan, recommended that the unemployed men and women should be engaged to maintain the toilets in employment.

"A monitoring team shall be set up by the Ministry of Women Affairs and Poverty Alleviation to inspect the public toilets on a regular basis in order to ensure hygienic environment and proper maintenance," Oduntan said.

In another development, the House Committee on Public Accounts (Local) said three local governments out of seven in the state had refused to appear before it over a report of the Auditor-General for Local Governments on capital projects inspection.

The affected LGs are Agege, Bariga, and Apapa, according to a statement by LAHA.

The Chairman of the Committee, Mr. Dayo Fafunmi, said the refusal of the councils to appear before the committee would not be tolerated, insisting that the committee would sanction them.

Fafunmi noted that out of the six LGs invited to appear on the first day of the exercise, only Amuwo–Odofin and Apapa-Igunmu LGs took permission not to appear while others refused the committee's invitation.

He said only Ayobo-Ipaja Local Council Development Area appeared before the committee and was asked to represent its necessary documents to justify the capital expenditure incurred during the period.



The Punch