Lagos shuts Quilox over ‘noise pollution’

 

The Lagos State Environmental Protection Agency (LASEPA) has shut Quilox Club in the Victoria Island axis of the state for alleged noise pollution.

The agency announced the closure of the club, owned by Shina Peller, a member of the house of representatives, in a statement on Sunday.

 

LASEPA said the facility was shut over “its failure to comply with directives on organising events and not obtaining a sound control permit from the agency.”

 

The agency added that the move also followed several complaints made by residents in the area.

 

In the statement, Dolapo Fasawe, LASEPA’s general manager, said the agency received several distress calls with video evidence from concerned neighbours to support their claims on alleged environmental nuisances being perpetrated by the club without consideration to the rights of other residents to a peaceful environment.

 

“To avert a situation like this, we recently held a stakeholders’ parley with the Owners/Chief Executive Officers of night clubs in the State to address the issue of noise pollution, particularly during the festive period,” the statement reads.

 

“Lagos had earlier increased the decibels to accommodate leisure/hospitality business interests. We, however, urged them to apply for sound control permits before hosting events to enable us to reach out to the host community of the intended programme and further deploy our officials to the venue for proper monitoring and prevention of excessive noise pollution.”

 

Fasawe said an invitation was extended to Quilox like every other stakeholder “but it was ignored by the management 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 sustained its economic relevance through aggressive environmental sustainability drive,” it added.

 

“To support the entrepreneurship interest of the operators. We came up with a communique which serves as a bond guiding all parties on the mode of operations during the yuletide period and the attendant consequences for non-compliance to the agreement.”

 

This is not the first time the club would be shut down by the state government for allegedly violating its laws.

 

In 2020, the state government also sealed the facility for flouting COVID-19 guidelines.