The Kwara State Government has prosecuted an environmental defaulter, Mr. Jimoh Atolagbe of Number 33, lle Olopin, Opomalu, Ilorin, for breaching the state law on environmental sanitation.
The felon was found guilty of Section 18 (1) A of the Public Health and Environmental Sanitation Law NO.5 of 2004 section 4 and 5 (4).
According to a statement released via the office of press secretary, ministry of environment, Okanlawon Taiwo, the man was caught in the act by the state Commissioner for Environment, Abosede Olaitan Buraimoh, and her team, while dumping the refuse of decayed peels of different fruits indiscriminately during the week, along the major roadside of Harmony Estate road Ilorin, thereby constituting nuisance as well as a veritable source of germs.
The Commissioner, in the company of the Director of Personnel, Finance and Supply, Pastor Adeniran Adebara, and the Director of Environment, Mr. Towoju Gabriel, while on monitoring and inspection exercise round the Ilorin metropolis sighting the nuisance frowned at the act despite steps taken to curb such act in the state.
As part of the offense committed by the defaulter, he failed to register with the Kwara State Environmental Protection Agency (KWEPA), an agency under the Ministry of Environment, as a commercial waste contractor indicating that he is an illegal operator, hence aggregated his offenses.
The defaulter was arraigned in the Kwara state judiciary headquarters, Ilorin and sentenced to two weeks in prison or pay a fine of #5,000, making sure that he does not contravene the environmental sanitation law again.
Poor Sanitation Service in Kwara
Meanwhile, In a recent report by UNICEF and the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), the north-central region ranks lowest of all geopolitical zones in the number of people using basic water supply, sanitation services.
Out of the 36 states and the federal capital territory (FCT), Kwara ranks 36th, just a step above Ebonyi which sits at the bottom of the table.
