The Lagos State Government has shut down no fewer than 53 churches, mosques and hotels across the state over noise pollution and other environmental offences.

Some of the sealed worship centers were accused of converting residential apartments to places of worship, which according to the government has been constituting nuisance to other residents.

The General Manager, Lagos State Environmental Protection Agency, LASEPA, Adebola Shabi, after the exercise, said the agency had been inundated with complaints from residents and neighbours of the shut facilities.

He said, “In recent times, most of the petitions kept coming to us. It was as if we are not working at all. That was why we shut the facilities.”

Shabi explained that some of the affected facilities had been served abatement notices before the eventual closure, adding that the growing rate of establishment of worship centers called for serious regulations, especially in the areas of noise generated across the state.

He said some of the noise-making worship centers were usually makeshift structures.

Credit: Punch