The Lagos State government yesterday warned telecom operators in the state against illegal digging of land for laying of optic fibre cable (OFC).

He urged operators to key into the on-going fibre-laying project the state is handling across the 20 local government areas and the local council development areas in the state.

The Commissioner for Science and Technology Mr. Hakeem Popoola Fahm, who gave the warning at the 2021 Ministerial Press Briefing in Alausa, Ikeja, to mark the second anniversary of Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu’s administration, also said under the Lagos State Science Research and Innovation Council (LASRIC), the government has funded over 50 research, innovation and science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) projects in the last one year.

Fahm said Lagos implemented a 3,000 km of Fibre Metro Network connection in 2020 and an additional 3,000km in 2021 across the state as part of the comprehensive Smart City Programme that seeks to provide a 24-hour driven economy.

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He called on the private sector, especially the telecoms operators, to key into the project, plug into the ducts system “and avoid illegal land digging”.

He said “LASIMRA will monitor that and ensure that fibre projects are also done neatly across the state”.

Fahm said that the implementation of the Lagos State Smart City project is to enable governance, connectivity and environmental security, saying the use of technology would make reporting of security incidents easy to reach, and promote access to major stakeholders in the government.

The commissioner reiterated that the project would also incorporate smart technologies into transport infrastructure surveillance and security, healthcare services, education, government services and advance the technological development of Lagos through the provision of affordable Internet access.