13 Dec Oyo Govt. Prosecutes 31 Environmental Offenders …Promises To Fight Saboteurs To A Halt

The Oyo State Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources on Monday has prosecuted thirty persons found culpable of violating the Environmental law 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 yesterday, after an Environmental sanitation exercise, led by the Executive Governor at Ojoo interchange.

Hon. Ayoola revealed that the violators were arrested by officers of the Ministry at different locations in Ibadan for indiscriminate dumping of refuse at unauthorised places in Ibadan metropolis.

Thereafter, the offenders were arraigned before a Magistrate, for committing punishable offences which are contrary to the Environmental Law of Oyo State.

The Magistrate ruled that the offenders be imprisoned for six months or pay a fine of N12, 500 each. It was revealed that twenty-one out of the offenders fulfilled their bail terms, while ten persons who failed to meet the terms were slammed with 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 to its barest minimum.

“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”, 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, “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.