•Report by Mudasir Opeyemi
The Lagos State Environmental Protection Agency (LASEPA) has shut down the popular nightclub, Quilox, at Ozumba Mbadiwe Road, Victoria Island area of the state.
The said popular club was on Saturday shut down over non-compliance to LASEPA’s directive and organising events without obtaining a sound control permit from the Agency.
Confirming the seal-off exercise in a statement on Sunday, LASEPA General Manager, Dr. Dolapo Fasawe, said that the decision became imperative following several distress calls with video evidence(s) received from concerned neighbors on the allegation of environmental nuisance that is being perpetrated by the affected club without considering the rights of other residents to a peaceful environment.
“To avert a situation like this, we recently held a stakeholder’s parley with the Owners/ Chief Executive Officers of nightclubs in the state to address the issue of noise pollution during the festive period.
“The states in its magnanimity, compassionately increased the decibels to accommodate leisure/hospitality business interest.
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“We urged them to apply for sound control permits to enable us reach out and notify the host community of the intended program and further deploy our officials to the venue for proper monitoring and prevention of excessive noise pollution,” Fasawe said in the statement
“Invitation was extended to Quilox club like every other stakeholder was ignored by the club for reasons best known to them.
“Entertainment and Lagos are like a conjoined twin, thus our prolific intervention to preserve the sanctity of the state and at the same time sustain its economic relevance through aggressive environmental sustainability drive.
“To support the entrepreneurship interest of the operators, we had an agreement at the stakeholder’s parley, came up with a communique which serves as a bond guiding all parties on the mode of operations during the yuletide period and consequences inherent in noncompliance to an environmental mutual agreement.”
Fasawe noted that no individual or group is bigger than the society, adding that the agency is still making efforts to ensure that all interests are protected under the law.