Over 50 people Ondo residents arrested, fined for sanitation offences.

No fewer than 50 persons have been arrested by officials of the Ondo State Waste Management Authority for violating the environmental law of the state.

The suspects were arrested on Saturday during the monthly environmental sanitation in Akure, the state capital, and were immediately charged to court and made to pay different fines.

The General Manager, Ondo State Waste Management Authority, Mrs Ayo Adeyemo, disclosed this while speaking shortly after the exercise.

She stated that the offenders were picked up at different locations within the Akure metropolis during the monthly exercise.

She urged residents to always obey the law and desist from dumping waste in drainage and other unauthorised places, warning that anybody who violated the law would face the consequence.

Adeyemo said, “We must imbibe the culture of keeping our environment clean. Environmental sanitation should be a daily affair and we should not wait until somebody forces us to clean our environment. Let us all keep our environment clean and free from all forms of diseases.

“Some people who brought their waste to the roadside to litter the street were arrested, and we shall continue to do this.  We should respect our environmental law; we should obey the law so that things can work well.

She also disclosed that a popular shopping mall and a market sealed last Monday over unhygienic and unsanitary practices had been opened.

According to her, the commercial centres have complied, to a large extent, with the laid down hygienic practices, adding that the agency is still monitoring them.