The popular Quilox nightclub in Victoria Island has been closed down by the Lagos State Government, through the state Environmental Protection Agency, LASEPA, for noncompliance with agency directives and organizing an event without a sound control permit.
The enforcement exercise which was jointly carried out by the agency and Lagos State Task Force took place around 4.30pm after receiving several complaints by the neighbors.
Confirming the seal off exercise, LASEPA, General Manager, Dr. Dolapo Fasawe, said that the measure became necessary following several distress calls with video evidence (s) received from concerned neighbors to support their claims on alleged environmental nuisances constituted by the club without recourse to the right of host community to peaceful environment.
According to Fasawe:
“To avert situation like this, we recently held a stakeholder’s parley with the Owners/ Chief Executive Officers of night clubs in the state to address the issue of noise pollution during the festive period.
“The states in its magnality, compassionately increased the decibels to accommodate leisure/hospitality business interest.
“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.”
According to Fasawe,
“invitation was extended to Quilox club, like every other stakeholders and was ignored by the club for reasons best known to them.”
She noted that no individual or group is bigger than the society and further harped on effort being made by her agency to ensure that all interest is protected under the law.
“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 mode of operations during the yuletide period and consequences inherent in non compliance to environmental mutual agreement, ” Fasawe said.