Oyo govt. to set up mobile courts to deal with violators of environmental laws, says HoS

Mrs Amidat Agboola, the Oyo state Head of Service (HoS), says the state government will soon set up mobile courts to prosecute residents that violate environmental sanitation laws in the state.

She said this on Tuesday in Ibadan during an advocacy meeting organized for stakeholders on environment management.

Agboola, who is also the chairperson of the state Adhoc Committee on Environment Management, said that the mobile courts would help to ensure that residents of the state complied with the extant laws on sanitation in the state.

She admonished the people to support government’s zero tolerance for indiscriminate dumping of refuse and imbibe good waste disposal culture.

She warned that government would not treat the issue of poor sanitation with kid gloves, saying that violators of the laws would be prosecuted.

The HoS further said that the Seyi Makinde-led administration had special interest in transforming and making the state attractive to foreign investors.

She also said that government would continue to do its best to create an enabling environment for local businesses to thrive.

She expressed satisfaction with the impressive turnout of the stakeholders at the meeting and urged them to assist the government in sensitising the public on proper ways to dispose domestic waste.

Some of the stakeholders, who spoke at the meeting, urged the government to start work on Waste-to-Wealth project in order to permanently check indiscriminate dumping of refuse in the state.

Chief Yemi Soladoye, the President of the Central Council of Ibadan Indigenes, called for quick implementation of the Orita-Aperin Recycling Project, in Ibadan.

He expressed concern that the project had suffered undue neglect by previous administrations.

Soladoye said that the completion of the project would mean that waste collectors would begin to buy refuse from residents.

He commended government’s efforts in tackling poor waste disposal and advised that the tempo should be sustained.

”We need to do more advocacy and enforcement, especially in all the local communities, while I call for the commencement of the waste recycling project by the state government,” he said.

It was reported that the meeting was convened at the instance of the governor, who had expressed worry over the poor sanitation in the state, especially Ibadan, the state capital.

The committee was set up by the governor, shortly after his inauguration, to initiate measures to combat the problem of indiscriminate waste disposal in the state.