The Abia State Environmental Mobile Court has convicted and fined 52 persons for violating the state’s environmental sanitation laws during the July monthly environmental sanitation exercise in Umuahia.
The offenders were among 64 persons arrested by environmental enforcement officials in different parts of the state capital between 7:00 a.m. and 10:00 a.m. for allegedly engaging in trading, loitering and other activities prohibited during the sanitation period.
Delivering judgment at the Mobile Court sitting within the Umuahia High Court Complex, the Presiding Magistrate, O.C. Ibekwe, convicted 52 offenders and ordered them to pay fines to the Abia State Government.
The court, however, discharged nine individuals after establishing that they were either ill, students on their way to examinations or workers engaged in essential duties.
Three other offenders were sentenced to carry out community service within Umuahia as a corrective measure.
Speaking after monitoring compliance at markets, drainage channels and waste disposal sites across the state capital, the Commissioner for Environment, Mr. Philemon Ogbonna, appealed to residents to support Governor Alex Otti’s environmental sanitation initiatives aimed at maintaining a cleaner and healthier Abia.
Represented by the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry, Ikechukwu Oriuwa, the commissioner also announced plans to establish a Neighbourhood Environmental Watch to strengthen environmental sanitation efforts across communities in the state.
According to him, the initiative is expected to curb indiscriminate refuse disposal and other environmentally harmful practices while promoting cleaner and healthier communities across Abia State.
