The Ogun State Government says it has taken disciplinary action against three environmental consultancy firms over their alleged roles in regulatory failures linked to pollution from closed lead battery recycling plants in Ogijo.
A two-part investigation by PREMIUM TIMES, in collaboration with The Examination and The New York Times, had exposed unsafe working conditions in the lead recycling facilities and widespread lead contamination in Ogijo, a community that borders Lagos and Ogun states.
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A week after the investigation, the state government ordered the immediate closure of some of the battery recycling plants in Ogijo.
The Commissioner for Environment, Ola Oresanya, insisted that the facilities will remain shut until a comprehensive health and environmental impact audit is completed.
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An official statement made available to PREMIUM TIMES on Saturday stated that during a review meeting held at the ministry’s conference room in Oke-Mosan, Abeokuta, Mr Oresanya announced that the firms were suspended on Tuesday after a process audit revealed significant lapses in their professional duties, particularly in reporting environmental compliance levels of the affected companies.
In a follow-up message sent to PREMIUM TIMES, the commissioner confirmed the suspension order.
The affected environmental consultancy firms are Vyne Nurt Limited, Core Environmental Services Limited and Saag Chemicals Nigeria Limited.
Mr Oresanya said the consultants were attached to the now-shut Used Lead Acid Battery (ULAB) recycling companies and were expected to provide accurate environmental assessments to guide government oversight. However, findings from the audit indicated that critical pollution control devices meant to be installed at the facilities were either absent or non-functional.
According to him, the failure was traced to deficient reports submitted by the consultancy firms, which prevented the state from having a true picture of the environmental risks posed by the companies’ operations.
“To have a clearer picture, we invited five consultancy firms involved and gave them the chance to defend their positions on the reporting gap.
“Two of the environmental consultancy firms were able to give some explanations which though not entirely satisfactory ,but were given the opportunity to amend their ways while the three suspended firms deliberately absented themselves from the review meeting knowing fully well that they are complicit,” the commissioner said.
He added that the state government had, therefore, suspended the three firms from carrying out environmental consultancy services in Ogun State, pending when they are able to clear themselves of allegations arising from the audit of the closed ULAB facilities.
The commissioner disclosed that the Federal Ministry of Environment and the National Environmental Standards and Regulations Enforcement Agency (NESREA) have been formally notified of the state’s decision.
What our investigation found
Our two-part investigative report revealed that the lead recycling factories in Ogijo have poisoned the very air residents breathe and the soil where children play.
Working with our partners, medical scientists collected 70 blood samples from factory workers and residents. They found that every tested worker showed dangerous lead exposure, with some levels as high as 38 µg/dL, which is many times above the World Health Organisation’s recommended limit.
Children in the community were not spared; eight out of 14 tested children had blood-lead levels exceeding five µg/dL, a threshold that health experts say poses serious risks to cognitive development.
Soil and dust samples collected around homes, farms, and a nearby school also showed catastrophic levels of contamination. In one school playground, the soil contained more than 1,900 ppm of lead, almost five times the level of many international safety limits.
Residents and workers reported chronic illnesses and symptoms consistent with lead poisoning, such as recurring stomach pains, fatigue, and poor concentration. Some families described their lives as being slowly suffocated by the black soot from the factory chimneys, fearing that their children’s futures had been stolen by a toxic smoke emitted by these factories.
Inside the plants, workers described a routine of crude, unsafe practices where used batteries are smashed by hand or with axes, molten lead is handled without adequate protective gear, and waste slag and lead dust are left exposed, allowing toxic particles to wash into soil or drift into the air.
Timeline of impact
Ogijo has been under heightened environmental scrutiny following concerns over lead and acid pollution associated with battery recycling activities.
Since the release of the two-part investigation, federal and state ministries, departments and agencies of government responsible for upholding labour and environmental laws have begun taking action after about a decade of poor regulatory oversight.
On Monday 24 November, the Minister of State for Labour and Employment, Nkeiruka Onyejeocha, led her team to seal up True Metals Nigeria Limited and Phoenix Steel Mills Limited,
During an inspection of True Metals, the battery-recycling plant at the center of the investigation, the minister said she found workers operating in what she described as “hazardous and dehumanising conditions.”
Days later, on 27 November, the Ogun State Commissioner for Environment, Ola Oresanya, led a combined team of experts from the Ministries of Environment and Health, OGEPA, and NESREA, to Ogijo and ordered the closure of seven lead recycling factories.
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Earlier in September, NESREA announced the seal up of nine lead recycling factories, after it received a copy of the soil and blood test results commissioned by our partners at The Examination and prepared by STRADev, a non-governmental environmental health organisation.
In addition, Chris Pruitt, executive chairman of the board of East Penn Manufacturing, a major US battery maker with ties to Nigerian companies, told The Examination and partner newsrooms that East Penn stopped buying lead from Nigeria and began to tighten its supplier code of conduct.
