Governor Babatunde Fashola of Lagos State has said that the government would henceforth sanction owners of abandoned vessels on Lagos shorelines.
Fashola said the owners of the abandoned vessels would be made to pay for ecological damage caused by the wrecks.
The governor stated this on Tuesday while opening the 6th Climate Change Summit held at Eko Hotels, Victoria Island, Lagos. He said the presence of the abandoned vessels posed great danger and ecological damage to the state.
Fashola, at the three day summit entitled: “Exploring Business Opportunities in Climate Change Mitigation and Adaptation: Lagos State in Focus,” said the state government was serious in its determination to fight the negative effects of climate change.
He said, professionals would be engaged to assist the state in identifying owners of such abandoned vessel to enable government make claims on ecological damage against them.
He said the state government was doing all within its ambit to tap into the emerging opportunities across the world for insurance business to secure the risk of damage to public assets against events of nature that were once thought to be excluded risks.
Fashola said the government had developed many initiatives geared towards converting the adversity of nature into prosperity.
He listed such initiatives to include the Eko Atlantic City project which he claimed had employed over 2000 people; the Groin Construction project, Alausa, Lagos and Akute Power Projects that employed 259 collectively.
He added that sources of alternative energy, such as solar panels were being manufactured and installed to create new knowledge, new skills and new jobs.
Fashola said as part of his administration’s resolves to create prosperity through nature’s adversity, it had employed over 58, 578 through various agencies of the government.
