Abia environment Commissioner hails residents over compliance with sanitation exercise
Abia environment Commissioner hails residents over compliance with sanitation exercise
The Commissioner of Environment in Abia State, Mr Philemon Ogbonna, has hailed the residents Umuahia the state capital for observing the June monthly environmental sanitation exercise in their large number.
Speaking shortly after monitoring the sanitation exercise on Saturday Ogbonna, who expressed satisfaction at the level of compliance by residents also warmed visitors to the state to always stop their movement during sanitation hours to avoid arrest by the law enforcement agencies.
He vowed that the Ministry of Environment under his watch will stop at nothing until Abia becomes one of the cleanest states in Nigeria.
The Commissioner said, “This month’s clean up exercise was monitored by a combined from the Ministry of Environment, Abia State Environmental Sanitation and Protection Agency(ASEPA) and the Umuahia North Local Government Area.
“The turn up today particularly in Umuahia was very impressive unlike in the past. Having gone round the city particularly the isigate axis where I monitored with the Deputy General Manager ASEPA, the level of participation was encouraging. We also had a brotherly interaction with the Hausa community there.
I’m glad that our appeal for them to join us in our objective of making sure that Abia is one of the cleanest state in the country is yielding a positive result.
‘We are not there yet but the outcome of the exercise today shows we are getting there. The job that was done on Eket Street to control the flood in the area is exceptional. Even though we are still going to cover the curvet there, the place is as dry as the season today.
“The Two things we want to achieve are is to make the environment clean and for people to know that they should join in cleaning the city volunteerly with being forced by the time they get to know that one of the principal objective of this government is to make the environment clean we have achieved 50 per cent of what we want.
“Many people were arrested because they did not participate in the clean up exercise. The exercise is for three hours (7am-10am), and we ask people to ensure they participate in it. Some said they don’t live within the state, we advice them to stop their journey once they enter the state and observe that there’s no movement. We deployed 10 tippers to chat away refuse from Umuahia today.”
Also speaking the chairman House Committee on Environment in the Abia State House of Assembly Hon. Kalu Mba, commended the residents of the capital city for the massive participation in the clean up exercise.
According to him “Today’s exercise was very impressive, but it can always get better like the Honorable Commissioner has said, we are not there yet, but soon we will get to the level when we will have complete compliance to the exercise. I’m happy with the improvement we have noticed today.
The Senior Special Assistance to the governor on Environment Prof
Ijeoma Iheukwumere, described the exercise as wonderful in a remark.
In her Words,”Today has been a wonderful day. We thank God that people are beginning to embrace the act of cleaning our environment. But we want shop owner to improve their efforts in cleaning their business premises on daily basis so that we keep away diseases and infections
The Deputy General ASEPA, Catechist Ambrose Jonah, said the level of compliance was something to write home about and fantastic.
“I must thank those who complied with us and the entire monitoring team too. I must thank the governor because he gave the support for us to desilt the tunnel at Eket street I also thank Eze Yaro for the support he has been giving us. He formed a task force that is monitoring the cleaning of the area,” he said.
The Deputy mayor Umuahia North Local Government Area, added that the council has always engaged in public sensitization programmes concerning environmental sanitation.
He said, “We at the LGA have been involved in sensitising our people on the importance of cleaning our environment. We are in collaboration with all the stakeholders in the ministry of environment and ASEPA to make sure that our environment is clean.
“Recently we desilted all major drains in the capital in other to help check flooding within the Umuahia capital city
“We also collaborated with the ministry of environment and ASEPA to desilt the tunnel at Eket by Owerri road to stop the flooding in the area. We continue to ensure that all efforts aimed at making the environment clean is sustained.”