By Eguasa Godspower
The Edo State Governor, Mr. Godwin Obaseki, has directed heads of the 18 local government areas of the State to enhance environmental practices in their domains to attain a cleaner status.
The Commissioner for Environment and Sustainability, Engr. Jonathan Lawani, informed journalists of the Governor’s directive after the weekly Executive Council (EXCO) meeting on Wednesday, July 20, 2022, in Government House, Benin City.
According to Lawani, “the Exco meeting chaired by Governor Obaseki recognized the importance of our role as individuals and citizens of the State in ensuring we have a clean State.”
He added: “Even if we embark on cleaning all the public places, without the house owners and people living in their houses taking ownership to clean their premises, we cannot achieve a clean Edo State.
“My appeal to the people of this State is that; we should imbibe that culture that we are known for. I grew up in this State; I understand how we clean up our houses even without the force of the monthly environmental sanitation we used to have. We have not had that for some time because of the economic effect of shutting down the State for hours, but that does not mean that we should not clean our premises especially now that we are in rainy season.”
He said that implementation of action plans has commenced as Staff of his Ministry have been deployed to the various local government areas in the State to enforce sanitation. He warned individuals who are nonchalant about keeping their premises clean that the full weight of the law would not be spared as the law is clear on sanitation and such offenders will be arrested and prosecuted.
“What we have done is that we have allocated the city centers to different officers of the Ministry and we have tasked them to take ownership of their areas and that includes to clear grasses, ensure quick evacuation of waste and ensure proper waste management by house holders.
“Also we have engaged environmental heads at the various local government areas, we have come up with a schedule of activities covering three months which they must carry out on a daily basis and report back to the Ministry as part of efforts to clean up the State and control communicable diseases like Lassa Fever,” Lawani said.
He lamented that “It is sad enough that when you are driving along the streets you see very beautiful houses with beautiful cars but the frontage is dirty including over-grown grasses.
“We appeal to the people of the State to clean their immediate surroundings, but if they fail to do this, the Ministry in collaboration with the local governments is ready to enforce the law because the law is clear on sanitation and we are going to enforce the law to make sure that defaulters are arrested and persecuted.
