Environmental Sanitation: Oyo Government Apprehends 40 Violators, Impounds 50 Vehicles and 40 Motorcycles

About 50 vehicles, 75 Motorcycles and 40 persons have been arrested and made to appear before the State Environmental tribunal for violating the environmental sanitation laws.

The enforcement team was led by the Commissioner for Environment and Natural Resources, Dr Abdulateef Idowu Oyeleke who led the enforcement team alongside the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry, Dr Bashir Olanrewaju, Chairman Environmental Task Force, ACP Francis Ojomo, Special Assistant to the Governor on Environment, Engr. Ademola Aderinto, Director of Environmental Health Services, Security operatives, among others during the monthly sanitation exercise along Bodija Secretariat road in Ibadan.

The Commissioner said it is alarming, the way people go about their businesses during sanitation exercise despite the campaign against the plague of dirty ridden environment and the adoption of the ‘clean and green initiative’ to alleviate the State of the epidemic.

“Today being the last Saturday of the month, people are expected to observe the monthly sanitation exercise by taking care of their surroundings, it is a nationwide exercise whereby each state adopts their policy.

“Here in Oyo State, the exercise is between the hours of 6:00 am and 9:00 am and of course, there are restrictions of vehicular as human movement and anyone found on the road, not on an essential service would be made to face the law as appropriate sanction would be given for disobeying the law of the land.

“This is to let the people know that nobody is above the law of the land and people should be made to be a respecter of the law of the land, those apprehended will serve as a deterrent to others that might want to do same next time.”

Dr Oyeleke appealed to citizens to make the exercise obligatory to make the State safer and healthier for people to live in and for smooth execution of commercial activities.

Corroborating this, the Permanent Secretary for the Ministry, Dr Bashir Olanrewaju, stressed that a lot of residents were found ignoring the exercise despite the effort of the state government public sensitization using all kinds of media.

He, however, said that people would get familiarized with the routine in the nearest future especially as the State is combining enforcement with sensitization and advocacy; this he said would have a positive impact on the people.

“We have so many communicable diseases, Covid-19 is just one of them, Cholera, Lassa fever is still killing people, these things are caused by the filthy environment, it will also lead to unemployment as no investor would want to invest his business in a filthy environment.”

ACP Francis Ojomo, the Chairman, Oyo State Environmental Task Force, stated that it is unfortunate that there could still be a large number of people that got arrested, despite the publicity provided on the sanitation.

Engr. Ademola Aderinto, the Special Assistant to the Governor on Environment, begged the residents to get acclimatized with the State’s pristine sanitation system and embrace the clean culture and green environment.