Harvest of defaulters: 92 defaulters arrested in Abia ‘s environmental sanitation exercise for the month of June
Abia State Government has frowned at the activities of some of officers of the Nigeria Police Force, Abia state command, who have formed the habit of sabotaging the monthly sanitation exercise and the basic environmental sanitation law.
The Commissioner of Environment, Mr. Philemon Asonye Ogbonna represented by the Permanent Secretary, Mr. Ikechukwu Oriuwa and the House Committee Chairman on Environment and the member representing Ohafia South State Constituency, Hon. Kalu Mba Nwoke, visited the Central Police Station where they observed that defaulters of the monthly environmental sanitation exercise were diverted to the station instead of the law court, where the offenders were being tried.
Conveying the defaulters of the monthly environmental sanitation exercise who were held at the station by the officers from the Central Police to the High court Umuahia, Hon. Nwoke decried that despite several calls on the officers to desist from the act, they have turned the deaf ear, and passionately called on the Commissioner of Police to advice his men to desist from the act.
“We have observed that the men and officers of the State Command of NPF will arrest defaulters, instead of taking them to designated law court for the commencement of trial, they will take them to the Central Police station and allegedly collect huge sums of money from them. This is against what the state government is doing and it is sabotaging the efforts and dainting the image of the state. It is illegal”.
He passionately called on Abia citizens, residents and visitors to stay at home during the exercise and participate actively by cleaning up their surroundings in order not to fall into such a trap, even as he advised those arrested during the exercise to insist that they were brought to the environmental sanitation court instead of the Central Police station.
He expressed satisfaction with the level of compliance, disclosing that personnel involved in immunization exercise were granted free movement likewise students going for the JAMB mop up examination.
Speaking also, the Commissioner for Environment who was represented by the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry, Mr. Ikechukwu Oriuwa, observed that traders in Orie Ugba market in Umuahia, come to market to relax during the exercise instead of staying back home to clean up their surroundings and warned that such an act will not be tolerated in the next month exercise.
He tasked them that apart from the daily clean up exercise in the market that they should embark on a general sanitation exercise in the market on the last Fridays of the month, bag the refuse generated and leave it for evacuation by the workers in charge during the environmental sanitation exercise that comes up in the following day, while they stay at home to clean up their surroundings on Saturday while the exercise lasted.
“We do not have carrots again to give, and more long rope, while we continue to sustain the momentum of making Abia a clean and green state, through massive and aggressive sensitization, which the relaunched sanitary inspectors have also taken up the task and have been up and doing, we will not hesitate to arrest defaulters who come to stay in the markets and motor Park during the exercise.
Also speaking, the Special Adviser to Governor Alex Otti on Environment, Prof. Ijeoma Iheukwumere, called on parents and guardians to assist the government achieve its desired goal on environmental cleanliness by educating their children to participate in the exercise instead of playing football along the streets during the exercise.
Speaking also, the Abia State Environmental Protection Agency (ASEPA) General Manager, Mr. Ogbonnaya Okereke, who maintained that the Agency has remained a part and parcel of the monthly environmental sanitation exercise from its inception, said the agency has street refuse pickers, roadside waste bin and also have house to house refuse collectors and advised Abians that a clean environment is for all, hence the need to clean up their business promises.
He seized the opportunity to warn that burning meat with tyre is dangerous to health and disclosed plans of the agency to deploy biogas plants to slaughter Houses to save the situation.
A total number of 92 defaulters were arrested and 79 prosecuted, 11 were discharged based on health issues, while 2 were going for the jamb mop up examination were released too, as ruled by the presiding Magistrate, His Worship, O.C. Ibekwe.
