Oyo goes tough on street trading, indiscriminate waste disposal

Oyo State governor, Senator Abiola Ajimobi, on Wednesday, led a sensitization campaign against street trading and indiscriminate waste disposal in Ibadan, the state capital, warning that persons who flout environmental sanitation laws would be arrested from today.

Ajimobi, in several conversations with traders in Beere, Bode, Oja-Oba, Molete, said the state government was all out to stamp out street trading, trading under power lines and on water ways, and dropping of refuse on medians and unauthorized places.
He decried descriptions of Ibadan, the state capital, as a dirty city as shameful, calling for the cooperation of all residents if the state was to be conducive and attractive for residents and investors alike.

Furthermore, he decried instances of vehicles straying to kill persons who engage in street trading and virtually sell on the road.
“We are sensitizing them and we have the assurance of the cooperation of residents. Ajimobi alone can’t do it. All of us have a role to play. We are ashamed at the notion of Ibadan being a dirty city.”

“A clean city will also engender investments into our state. We don’t want casualties resulting from vehicles straying to kill persons trading on our streets. We want a clean state.”
“From tomorrow, we’ll arrest persons who fail to heed to our warning not to trade on our streets. Our people should not defecate or drop faeces on our streets. It’s shameful seeing such,” Ajimobi said.

Also speaking on the campaign train, Commissioner for Environment and Water Resources, Mr Isaac Ishola, reiterated that commitment of the state government to enforcing the Environmental sanitation and Waste Control regulations law 2013 through the setting up of environment tribunals and mobile courts to prosecute offenders.

He urged households, communities, managers of motor parks, markets, complexes, shops to get refuse bins, receptacles and patronise Private Refuse Collectors accredited by the Ministry of Environment and Water Resources for their waste disposal.
Ishola added that all persons arrested for street trading would be arrested and have their goods confiscated.
Others who partook in the campaign tour were members of the state executive council, officials of Waste Management Consultant (West Africa Energy) and environment officers.