Indiscriminate waste disposal: Court sentences Ogun residents to community service

An Ogun State Magistrate Court sitting in Isabo, Abeokuta, has sentenced eight offenders to community service for indiscriminate waste disposal.

The suspects, six females and two males, were caught between the hours of 6:15 to 8:05 a.m on Friday, dumping waste on public roads at Isale- Igbein, Car-Wash and Abiola Way in the Abeokuta Magisterial District.

Prosecuting the suspects on a two count charge, Sanitarian Kehinde Ogunsola, Medical Officer of Health of the Ogun State Waste Management Authority, OGWAMA, said the waste emitted offensive odour that attracted flies which are liable to spread cholera.

According to Ogunsola, indiscriminate dumping is dangerous to the health and causes flooding which affects life and property, adding that the offense contravenes the Public Health Law of Ogun State, 2006, and Section 34(1) of the Ogun State Waste Management Authority Law, 2020.

Delivering his judgment, Justice A.K Araba found the eight offenders – Oyebanjo Abidemi, Aminat Adewusi, Aminat Olarewaju, Omolana  Olusola, Abiola Moridiya, Olaogun Mary, Abiodun Aromokun and Iwenya Sylvester – guilty  and sentenced them to community service within the Isabo Magistrates Court.

He also ordered that their pictures while doing the community service be displayed on the court’s notice board as anyone of them caught again for the same offense will be jailed without option of fine to serve as deterrent to others.

Reacting to the judgment, Special Adviser to the Governor and Managing Director of the Ogun State Waste Management Authority, OGWAMA, Farouk Adeniyi Akintunde, praised Ogun State Judiciary for proper interpretation of the laws and supporting the authority’s efforts at ending indiscriminate dumping of waste.

He pledged that OGWAMA will continue to step up its enforcement activities throughout the state to stop indiscriminate dumping of waste.

Akintunde also used the opportunity to urge some residents who are still in the habit of indiscriminate dumping of waste on roads and public places to patronize waste managers assigned to their area, or wait for their time in court whenever they are caught dumping waste at inappropriate places.