As cholera cases accrue in some states of the country, residents of Abia State have been warned of the dangers of not keeping their environment clean, as such neglect was an invitation to the disease to the state.
Speaking to newsmen while handing down the warning in Umuahia after monitoring a sanitation exercise in the state on Saturday, the Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Environment, Iheanyichukwu Ubani, represented by the deputy director, Pollution Control and Environmental Health, Mrs. Obimaduka Ihuaku, said the warning had become necessary going by the number of cases being recorded across the country.
According to the permanent secretary, the August edition of the sanitisation exercise recorded impressive turn up but observed that more was still expected from the residents to further keep the state clean.
He maintained that the state government had always shown its commitment towards the monthly sanitation by providing logistics to avoid hindrance while disclosed that the ministry was to send out environmental officers to monitor sanitary condition of residential buildings of residents.
“What I need to advise residents is the need to sit up in the clean up because we have set up taskforce that would arrest people who are not participating in the cleanup exercise or loitering about during the exercise as we have also inaugurated sanitation courts in Aba Zone and Umuahia Zone that would prosecute defaulters,” she said.
She enjoined residents to always come out to show their commitment and support to cleanliness as that would be to their benefit.
Adding his voice on how the exercise was observed within the Umuahia Metropolis, Chairman of Umuahia North LGA, Ugochukwu Ejimnkeonye, who spoke through the deputy chairman, Bob Agbugba, noted that most defaulters arrested during the exercise were people on transit across the capital city, which has a federal road corridor to Akwa Ibom State but should be aware that every last Saturday of each month was being observed as sanitation day nationwide, which they should obey.
The deputy chairman urged people to obey the instruction as stated in the scripture which says that “cleanliness is next to godliness”, “especially now another wave of coronavirus is threatening lives.”
