Oyo Prosecutes 31 Environmental Offenders

..…Promises To Fight Saboteurs To A Halt

By Olusakin Babalola,Ibadan

Oyo State Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources has on Wednesday prosecuted thirty persons found culpable of violating environmental laws of the State, before a Magistrate court sitting in Ibadan.

This was revealed by the Commissioner for Environment and Natural Resources, Rt. Hon. Kehinde Ayoola today, after an Environmental sanitation exercise, led by the State governor, Seyi Makinde at Ojoo interchange, at Akinyele local government in Ibadan.

Hon. Ayoola revealed that the violators were arrested by officers of the Ministry at different locations in Ibadan for indiscriminate dumping of refuse at unauthorized places within Ibadan metropolis and were arraigned before a Magistrate for committing punishable offences which were contrary to the Environmental Laws of the State.

The Magistrate ruled that the offenders be imprisoned for six months or pay a fine of N12,500 each, out of which twenty-one of the offenders fulfilled their bail terms, while ten persons who failed to meet the terms were forced to do community services.

Rt. Hon. Ayoola buttressed that the arraignment is a further proof of Oyo State government’s determination to end menace caused by unlawful disposal of refuse.

“When we said we would fight this menace to a stop, and put saboteurs to a halt, we meant business, this is why the State Government, under the leadership of His Excellency, Governor Seyi Makinde has deployed its whole apparatus to enforce the law on environmental sanitation in the State.

“We believe this will serve as deterrent to other violators of the State Environmental Laws that it will not be business as usual, we have to change our orientation as regards good environment for the sake of ourselves and our neighbors,” he said.

Commenting further, Ayoola said “Governor Seyi Makinde is so passionate about the cleanliness of our environment, this is why our officers would not hesitate to clampdown on all violators of environmental laws.”

The Commissioner therefore urged members of the public to desist from unlawful disposal of refuse, saying that the State Government has deployed its officers in strategic places in the State to apprehend offenders.

In a related development, a middle-aged man, identified as Mutiu Odeniran who was caught offloading his van full of refuse by the roadside has been fined with the sum of N42,500 for violating the Environmental laws of the State.

Odeniran was apprehended at Molete axis of the State capital, by Environmental Health officers on Wednesday last week and prosecuted before a Magistrate on Thursday.