Oyo state government has vowed to continue its enforcement of the State’s environmental laws to address the state of sanitation among dwellers.
Not less than twenty seven persons were apprehended on Thursday for flouting environmental laws during the weekly sanitation exercise along Bodija, Sango-Eleyele and Orogun axis of Ibadan.
The State Commissioner for Environment and Natural Resources, Dr. Abdul-Lateef Idowu Oyeleke disclosed that the State has done a lot of sensitization towards changing the poor habit of some people to their environment, an effort he said was still ongoing on the media and through regular meetings with stakeholders.
He hinted that the essence of the sensitization was to inform the public on the need to desist from violating environmental sanitation laws, adding that the government was not out to witch-hunt the people but ensuring a habitable and investor-friendly State.
The Commissioner further enjoined business owners, traders and the general public to see the prosecution of environmental sanitation offenders as a way of ensuring compliance with the law.
Speaking at a scene of enforcement, the Chairman, task force committee on Environment, ASP Francis Ojomo accompanied by the Director of Environmental Health Services and other Environmental health officers, revealed that despite all efforts of the State government in putting necessary policies towards ensuring safe, healthy and sustainable environment, some people were recalcitrant against compliance to environmental laws, as they kept displaying wares during sanitation exercise, indiscriminately dump waste on road medians, waterways and roadsides.
“The problem is not about the availability of appropriate places to dump refuse, the State gas provided those places and containers to pack waste, the problem is about people willfully flouting the laws and we are not going to stop applying the law whenever we catch such people.
“So much sensitization efforts have gone into changing attitudes for a better environment, there are many radio jingles and television playlets to achieve this and they are still ongoing, enforcement is the final level and we shall not joke with it.”
