The chairman of the Northern Traditional Council, South-South, South-East community, Sarki Yori Danladi, has said that the Northern community in Abia State would support Governor Alex Otti in his efforts to rebuild the state.
Danladi spoke at the weekend when the Avis State Commissioner for Environment, Mr Philemon Ogbonna, paid him a visit at Eket street in Umuahia, the state capital, during the month environmental sanitation exercise in the state.
He pointed out that the Northern community in the state has keyed into the state government’s policy of keeping every part of the state clean for the well-being of its people.
He said, “We are ready to assist the state government in its efforts to keep the state clean. As I told the General Manager of Abia State Environmental Sanitation, our people are ready to support the government of Governor Alex Otti to move the state forward, by playing our roles as residents of the state.
“We have warned our people to keep their surroundings clean to avoid the outbreak of any disease in our environment. We commend the governor for fixing the roads around our business premises and desilting a tunnel at Eket Street that has been of great concern to us for years.”
Also speaking, the commissioner hailed the residents of Umuahia, the state capital, for observing the June monthly environmental sanitation exercise in large numbers.
He expressed satisfaction at the level of compliance by residents, even as he also warned visitors to the state to always stop their movement during sanitation hours to avoid arrest by law enforcement agencies.
He vowed that the Ministry of Environment under his watch would stop at nothing until Abia became one of the cleanest states in Nigeria.
The commissioner said, “This month’s clean-up exercise was monitored by a combined team from the Ministry of Environment, Abia State Environmental Sanitation and Protection Agency and the Umuahia North Local Government Area.
“The turnout today, particularly in Umuahia, was very impressive, unlike in the past. Having gone around the city, particularly the Isigate axis, where I monitored with the Deputy General Manager of ASEPA, the level of participation was encouraging. We also had a brotherly interaction with the Hausa community there.
I’m glad that our appeal for them to join us in ensuring that Abia is one of the cleanest states in the country is yielding a positive result.
“We are not there yet, but the outcome of the exercise today showed we are getting there.
The job that was done on Eket Street to control the flood in the area is exceptional. Even though we are going to cover the curvet there, the place is as dry as the season today.
“The two things we want to achieve are to make the environment clean and for people to know that they should join in cleaning the city voluntarily without being forced; by the time they get to know that one of the principal objectives of this government is to make the environment clean, we have achieved 50 per cent of what we want.
“Many people were arrested because they did not participate in the clean-up exercise. The exercise is for three hours (7 am – 10 am), and we ask people to ensure they participate. Some said they don’t live within the state, we advised them to stop their journey once they enter the state and observe that there’s no movement. We deployed 10 tippers to evacuate refuse from Umuahia today.”
Also speaking the Chairman of the Abia State House of Assembly Committee on Environment, Hon Kalu Mba, commended the residents of the capital city for their massive participation in the clean-up exercise.
He said, “Today’s exercise was very impressive, but it can always get better like the honourable commissioner has said, we are not there yet, but soon we will get to the level when we will have complete compliance with the exercise. I’m happy with the improvement we have noticed today.
Senior Special Assistance to the governor on Environment, Prof Ijeoma Iheukwumere, described the exercise as wonderful in a remark.
She said, “Today has been a wonderful day. We thank God that people are beginning to embrace the act of cleaning our environment. But we want shop owners to improve their efforts in cleaning their business premises daily so that we keep away diseases and infections.”
The Deputy General of ASEPA, Mr Ambrose Jonah, said,” The level of compliance was something to write home about and fantastic.
“I must thank those who complied with us and the entire monitoring team too. I must thank the governor because he gave us support for us to desilt the tunnel at Eket Street. I also thank Eze Yaro for the support he has been giving us. He formed a task force that is monitoring the cleaning of the area.”