By Charles Ogbonnaya.
The Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Environment, Abia State, Mr Iheanyi Ubani has decried the nonchalant attitudes of the Hausa Community at Eket Street Umuahia towards the monthly sanitation exercise in the state.
The Permanent Secretary who was represented by the director of pollution control and environment, Mr Ikechukwu Ukegbu made his feelings known in Umuahia during the sanitation exercise for November 2020.
He said that all efforts to involve the Hausa community to improve the sanitary condition of the place has not yielded fruit, noting, “we have tried to involve their leaders, we are not pampering them as insinuated, we have to put them on notice”.
He described the cleanup exercise as a remarkable improvement from what it used to be, saying, “It has never been this good, we are hoping that next cleanup exercise a lot of people will sit up.
“We have impounded a lot of cars, trucks and Keke, commuters, their drivers and passengers arrested and tried by the mobile court through the efforts of operation and enforcement units. It is a little warning, and all will understand that the state government is serious about the cleanliness of the state.
Also speaking the Abia State Chairman of Environmental Sanitation, Hon Eze Okuwlehie noted that the sanitation enforcement is necessary to change the narrative of clean up exercise in Abia state over the years.
“I believe they will be more seriously next time. We have to enforce full participation. I am happy that enforcement unit performed creditably and we will continue to do more next clean up”, Okwulehie said.
Reacting the traditional ruler of the Hausa community, HRM Alhaji Yaro Danladi decried the non-participation of his subject during clean up exercises despite severally being warned.
His words, “Enough is enough, I call on the government to come and arrest anyone not participating at the next clean up exercise”.
