MINNIE OSEJI FROWNS AT NON COMPLIANCE WITH MONTHLY SANITATION EXERCISE BY DELTA RESIDENTS

51 persons were arrested on Saturday by the Delta State Government and made to face the law for failing to comply with the monthly sanitation exercise. 

The offenders, mostly keke riders and traders, were rounded up at strategic points in Asaba by officials of the State Ministry of Environment, tried by the mobile court presided by Chief Magistrate Faith Kekefe-Kalu, who found 34 of them guilty and discharged 17 others.

Decrying the high level of non compliance to the orders of the State Government by most residents of Asaba, the Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Environment, Dr Mininim  Oseji, who monitored the sanitation exercise dismissed the excuses of the offenders. 

‘’The last Saturday of every month has been reserved for environmental sanitation in several states across the country. So, we are using this opportunity to inform and appeal to all residents of Delta State to observe the exercise as scheduled. If the exercise is modified, there will be a public announcement to that effect’’ she said. 

After visiting the park and market in Issele-Uku, Dr. Oseji reminded the Chairman of Aniocha North Local Government, Mr. Kelvin Okwuechime that he owed it a responsibility to enforce environmental laws in the area. 

‘’Because of the limitation of resources, we cannot visit every local government area at the same time but the Ministry of Environment is committed to ensuring that all local government areas are encouraged to be clean. 

‘’Market sanitation is the exclusive preserve of the Local Government Councils. This is why what we have seen here at Issele-Uku market (today) is a complete anomaly, there is complete dereliction of duty to keep the market clean”, the PS said. 

Dr. Oseji said the State Government was evolving strategies and models for effective waste management; one of which was the partnership with the association of waste managers.

‘’We are introducing the recycling initiative so that a lot of the refuse indiscriminately dumped around  will be sorted at source and reprocessed. This will automatically drastically reduce the amount of waste generated from the households. 

‘’The residents need to understand that it is their responsibility to keep their environment clean. The government does not buy food for them and so they should ensure to properly bag their wastes, store them in bins and arrange for their collection through the legal channels as provided by the state government’’ she said.