‘Lagos Is Drowning In Refuse, Residents May Soon Start Counting Dead’ — Youth Rights Campaign Accuses APC Govt Of 27-Year Failure, Calls For Mass Protest | Sahara Reporters

YRC warned that the situation could lead to preventable deaths and serious illnesses, including cholera, typhoid and malaria, if urgent action is not taken.

The Youth Rights Campaign (YRC) has warned that Lagos State is facing a looming public health crisis over mounting heaps of uncollected refuse, accusing the All Progressives Congress (APC) government of failing to manage waste despite 27 years of uninterrupted rule in the state.

In a statement issued on Friday, August 28, 2026, and signed by its National Coordinator, Michael Adaramoye Lenin, and National Secretary, Francis Nwapa, the group said refuse has accumulated in homes, streets, business premises and around schools across Lagos.

YRC warned that the situation could lead to preventable deaths and serious illnesses, including cholera, typhoid and malaria, if urgent action is not taken.

“Lagos State is sitting on a public health time bomb,” the group said, adding that residents could soon be forced to “start counting the dead” if the government failed to immediately evacuate the accumulated refuse.

The group called on residents across all 20 local government areas and 37 Local Council Development Areas to begin organising mass, peaceful protests against the state government.

YRC’s foremost demand, according to the statement, is the immediate emergency evacuation of refuse from residential areas, streets and highways across the state.

The group also condemned remarks attributed to Lagos Deputy Governor and APC governorship candidate for the 2027 election, Obafemi Hamzat, during a recent appearance on 99.3 FM.

According to YRC, Hamzat admitted that Lagos does not have enough trucks to evacuate the volume of waste generated in the state.

The group described the alleged admission as evidence of “institutional failure at the highest level of government” and rejected any attempt to blame residents for the crisis.

“That Lagos, a megacity of over 20 million people and Nigeria’s economic capital, generates more waste than its government can evacuate is not a citizens’ failure,” YRC said.

The group accused the APC administration of failing to provide basic infrastructure required to manage waste in a megacity.

YRC also attacked Lagos’ Private Sector Participation (PSP) waste collection model, alleging that it has been used as a patronage system for political loyalists and members of the elite rather than as an effective public health mechanism.

“The Private Sector Participation (PSP) model of waste collection in Lagos has for years functioned less as a public health solution and more as a business compensation scheme for party loyalists and members of the political elite,” the group alleged.

It demanded an end to what it called political patronage in waste management and urged the government to place environmental health above political and commercial interests.

The group further accused the government of continuing to rely on open dumping practices at sites including Ojota and Ile-Epo, describing them as public health hazards.

The group called for the immediate evacuation of refuse, an end to open dumping and the construction of engineered sanitary landfills.

It also demanded mandatory waste sorting at household and business levels, with organic waste, recyclable materials and residual waste separated at source.

YRC urged the government to scrap the PSP model and place waste evacuation directly under a properly funded and professionally managed Ministry of Environment.

The group also called for investment in waste-to-energy facilities, recycling infrastructure and composting.

With schools expected to resume in about two weeks, YRC demanded the immediate removal of refuse from school environments to protect children from disease outbreaks.

YRC urged residents in areas including Ifako-Ijaiye, Ikorodu, Alimosho, Eti-Osa, Badagry and Epe to organise through communities, unions, markets and student bodies for mass protests.

The group also criticised the APC’s 27-year uninterrupted control of Lagos, saying the period had produced “heaps of refuse in place of the megacity we were promised.”

“Lagos does not have to live in refuse. The solutions exist. What is missing is the political will, and if this government will not summon it, the people of Lagos must organise to demand it,” YRC said.

The group called for a “genuine working people’s political alternative” that it said would prioritise public health and human dignity over political patronage and profit.