Follow Us on Google
From Jude Owuamanam, Jos
A Mobile Sanitation Court sitting in Jos, the Plateau State capital, has convicted 22 persons for violating the state’s monthly environmental sanitation exercise held on the last Saturday of the month.
The offenders were arraigned before the mobile court by the Plateau State Environmental Protection and Sanitation Agency (PEPSA), whose officials monitored compliance with the exercise across parts of the state on Saturday.
Chief Magistrate Yop Hannatu Ahoms, who presided over the court, said the offenders were convicted and fined for breaching the state’s environmental sanitation regulations.
She explained that stiffer sanctions had become necessary to deter residents who deliberately violate sanitation laws by moving about or engaging in commercial activities during the sanitation period.
The Director of Administration, Izang Pate, who represented the Director-General of PEPSA, Samuel Dapiya, told journalists after the exercise in Jos North that compliance remained poor despite sustained public enlightenment campaigns.
Pate expressed concern over widespread environmental violations, including indiscriminate dumping of refuse and the erection of kiosks and shops on drainage channels.
He said the monitoring exercise revealed that several drainage channels had been obstructed by illegally erected structures, leading to waste accumulation and poor water flow, a situation also observed in the Kongo-Russia area.
Other News
According to him, such practices are major contributors to flooding and outbreaks of diseases in the state.
He warned owners of illegal structures blocking drainage channels to remove them immediately or face demolition and possible prosecution.
Pate noted that although many residents kept their homes clean, the surrounding environment, particularly drainage channels, remained heavily blocked because many people continued to dump refuse into gutters and drains.
“Although most households maintained clean premises, we discovered that many drainages were blocked with garbage, exposing communities to cholera, malaria and other environmental health hazards,” he said.
He urged residents to make environmental cleanliness a daily habit rather than an activity observed only during the monthly sanitation exercise.
The director also condemned the construction of kiosks and shops on drainage channels, warning that landlords and owners must remove all illegal structures or risk demolition and prosecution.
He further disclosed that compliance was particularly poor in Gadan Bako and Nasarawa Filing Ball, where some residents and traders continued their business activities in defiance of the restriction of movement imposed during the sanitation exercise.
