Gbenro Adesina/Ibadan
Six shops including a food canteen and a butcher’s shop were sealed on Thursday July 18, 2019, along Old Ife Road and Gbagi Area of Ibadan, capital of Oyo State for flouting the State’s environmental sanitation and waste management law.
The act was in accordance with the stand of the government and state stakeholders at the recently held advocacy programme on environmental laws in the state.
Oyo State government held a stakeholders advocacy meeting on Tuesday July July 16 at the House of Chiefs in Ibadan, where various groups and government representatives deliberated on ways forward to put a stop to indiscriminate waste disposal.
The participants at the occasion charged Governor Seyi Makinde-led administration to step up enforcement exercise among other solutions to the menace of filthy environment.
The Director of Environmental Health Officers for the Ministry of Environment and Water Resources, Olusoji Oyewole who led the enforcement team during the weekly environmental sanitation within Ibadan environs, said it was surprising that despite the campaign efforts of the present administration against the scourge of filth and maintenance of healthy and safe environment, some shop owners were still violating the environmental regulation.
He further warned traders, shop owners, motorists and the general public to desist from violating the sanitation laws, which include dumping of refuse indiscriminately, construction of shanties on drainage, display of wares and food items at the road set back and under high – tension wires among others as mobile court would soon be established to prosecute residents that violate environmental sanitation law in the state.
He said, “It is disheartening that despite the efforts of the state government to bring to a halt, the culture of filth through indiscriminate refuse dumping, some residents are still found in engaging in the unwholesome practice. This cannot be tolerated any longer and soon, the mobile court that will see to immediate dispensation of justice regarding environmental problem will start working”.
Oyewole, therefore, enjoined all and sundry to embrace cleanliness as environmental issue is a collective responsibility.