Government warns residents against dumping of refuse in drains, waterways

The Kogi State Commissioner of Environment and Natural Resources, Mr Salisu Yahaya, has warned residents against dumping of refuse in the drains and waterways to avoid flooding.

The commissioner gave the warning while speaking with newsmen shortly after the monthly environmental sanitation exercise in Lokoja on Saturday.

Yahaya, who monitored the exercise, urged residents to have attitudinal change and cooperate with the government by dumping their waste at designated waste or communal bins, adding that offenders would be sanctioned henceforth.

“We have sensitised the people through the mass media, we hope that by June, the compliance level will be better than it is today. We have given people enough time but some people have chosen not to obey.

“We have mobile courts in various part of the state that will prosecute offenders with heavy sanction and fines.

“The state administration under Gov. Yahaya Bello takes the issue of sanitation seriously and that is why the government has invested so much to ensure clean and healthy environment.

“We are warning people that there is no more excuse for indiscriminate dumping of refuse or not to clean their drainages and surroundings. It is an attitudinal problem not because there is no place to dump their waste,” Yahaya said.