A mini-bus has crushed an employee of the Lagos State Waste Management Authority to death in an accident that occurred in the Ketu area of Lagos State on Monday night.

The Permanent Secretary OF the Lagos State Emergency Management Agency, Olufemi Oke-Osanyintolu, disclosed this in a statement on Tuesday.

According to the perm sec, the accident occurred when the driver of the mini-bus drove recklesslessly and collided with a LAWMA truck that was parked indiscriminately on a section of the road.

The mini-bus was said to have hit the LAWMA official, who died before the arrival of emergency responders.

He said, “Upon the arrival of LASEMA’s Tiger Response Team at the incident scene by 00:07hrs, it was discovered that a registered commercial (yellow) minibus popularly known as (korope) registration number AGL 97 YK, collided with a parked LAWMA truck, registration number unknown.

“Preliminary investigations at the scene indicated that the accident occurred due to reckless driving on the part of the minibus and carelessness, on the part of the parked LAWMA truck which did not indicate its ‘parked’ status with a “C-Caution” sign at the required position and appropriate distance from the truck, thereby, leading to a collision with the LAWMA compactor truck.

“Further investigations revealed that in the process of the accident, the minibus hit a LAWMA official performing his lawful duties. Unfortunately, the LAWMA official died before the arrival of the agency’s Response Teams.”

The perm sec noted that the minibus driver sustained injuries and was treated by emergency responders, while the body of the deceased LAWMA official was handed over to the state’s health officials for further action.

“However, the driver of the accident minibus sustained significant injuries and was given immediate medical attention by paramedics from the agency’s Pre-Hospital Care Unit at the incident scene.

“A search and rescue operation was conducted to remove the injured driver of the minibus.

The commodity (dead LAWMA official) was recovered and bagged by the agency’s Response Team.

“The remains of the deceased LAWMA official were handed over to officials of the State Environmental Health Monitoring Unit for further processing,” Oke-Osanyintolu stated.

Efforts to get a reaction from the LAWMA’s Director of Public Affairs, Sade Kadiri, proved abortive as she did not respond to calls and messages sent to her line as of the time of filing this report.

PUNCH Metro reported on March 13 that a street sweeper working with LAWMA accused her superiors of exploitation, citing poor earnings and harsh working conditions.

In a viral video circulated on social media, the sweeper, who did not reveal her name, accused her supervisors of shortchanging workers and failing to implement the approved salary structure.

She alleged that despite reports that their salary had been increased to N85,000 since August 2024, sweepers continued to receive N30,000 for months.