Church members embarks voluntary clean up exercise in Abia
Ogbonnaya Ikokwu, Umuahia
Members of the Church of Jesus Christ of latter-day Saints in Umuahia, the Abia State capital have embarked on a voluntary clean up exercise on Eket street area of the city last Saturday.
The christian faithfuls who were over 50 in number were seen cutting grass and sweeping the area predominantly occupied the Hausa community in the state.
Speaking shortly after the exercise the stake president of Umuahia Nigeria stake of the Church President James Ogbuisi, said the exercise was part of the church’s community service tagged All African Service Project.
He pointed out that the church in carrying out the community service is expected to identify a need that will better society and solve it.
Ogbuisi who commended Gov. Alex Otti for efforts in keeping the state clean, promised that the church will do all it can to encourage its members to join hands with other Abia residents to make the state clean.
He said, “Today we as the members of the Church of Jesus Christ in Umuahia Nigeria Sake of Zion joined our members across all African West Area to participate in a community service which the church tagged all Africa service project
“We are required to identifed a place in the community where we reside that we think we can make an impact as well as make the environment clean and ensure healthy living among the people.
“What we noticed in this place that attracted our attention was the filthy nature of the surrounding. The traders and the occupants of this environment buy what they eat from this environment.
“We discovered that open defecation is going on here which made the environment untidy. so felt we needed to come and sensitizes them and at the same time show them how they can keep their environment clean. We encourage them to stop open defecation because it’s not good for their health as well as the health of those who come here to patronize them.
“In the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, we believe that cleanliness is next to Godliness, this is something we have been doing for more than ten years now across African West Area, as we are here today across every city in Nigeria members of the church are doing the same thing too.We encourage our members to be clean, our principle is if you are not clean physically how can you be clean in the present of God. Our meeting houses are examples of what a clean environment should be”.
Also Mr Samuel Epolo a member of Owerri Nigerian Mission of the church said it was privilege for them to mark the annual event of keeping the environment clean.
“We have been taught this principle and we encourage our members to keep their environment clean at all times so that we can live a healthy life. It is centered on service to humanity and we also had the opportunity to exercise”, he said.
In a remark the Deputy General Manager Abia State Protection Agency Umuahia zone Mr Ambrose Jonah, commended the efforts of the church, making the state capital clean.
He said, “This exercise is the first of its kind. I also want to encourage other christian denominations to follow suit and help to keep our environment clean
“Our campaign on the bagging of refuse before disposal have been on air for some weeks now. We are encouraging the members of the public to bag refuse in three categories including non-degradable waste, degredable and for biomedical waste. As from next Monday we will start the enforcement, we won’t like to be seeing waste been exposed because it attract reptiles, mosquitoes and it can also be contagious. We want Umuahia to be of cleanest cities in Nigeria.
“We tend to sanitize the city centre by pulling down all the illegal structures in the area. We will demarcate the area and plant trees to beatify the environment”.