The Nasarawa State government on Saturday said it has arrested 67 residents of Lafia, the state capital, for violating this month’s environmental sanitation exercise in the state.
The Chief Environmental Officer of the state Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources, Alhaji Abubakar Mohammed, who disclosed this while briefing newsmen after monitoring the monthly environmental sanitation in Lafia, revealed that the violators were arrested in different locations in Lafia town and its suburbs.
Mohammed added that the arrested violators would be prosecuted according to the 2020 State Environmental Laws, which was assented to by Governor Abdullahi Sule and had been in use in the state.
He said, “We made an arrest of 67 people quite different from what we use to have before. Previously the number of violators were low, but today it has risen. Our men were sent to all nooks and crannies of the town, in order for them to have very good assessment of the town.”
The state Commissioner for Environment and Natural Resources, Musa Ibrahim, said the ministry will continue to adopt stringent measures to ensure strict enforcement of the state Environmental Sanitation Laws.
Ibrahim, who was represented by the Acting Permanent Secretary in the ministry, Jonathan Kwaghkaha, said the ministry will continue to sensitise the public on the importance of keeping their surroundings clean in order to avoid disasters of flood and fire outbreaks, especially as the dry season draws closer.
He said, “There is very great improvement compared to other monthly exercise. We are graduating into achieving the full aim of the monthly exercise, because people have complied. No business premises were opened today and people were seen sweeping their environments. I saw can refuses being evacuated timely.”
He, however, said the ministry will make sure that in the next sanitation exercise, shop owners will be made to sweep their surrounding before they close their shops.
