Abia: Criminals involved in sacking the court and free sanitation were not sacked—ASEPA Deputy GM

Officials from the Abia State Environmental Protection Agency (ASEPA) did not remove any mobile courts from Umuahia, according to Catechist Ambrose Jonah, the Deputy General Manager responsible for the zone.

In response to Saturday’s reported desecration of a government mobile court in Umuahia, he made the following statement.

After overseeing May’s environmental cleanup exercise in Abia State, Jonah released a statement in which he explained that the only reason ASEPA officials present at the Ministry of Environment were asked to vacate the premises was because of an alleged misunderstanding.

The Deputy General Manager of ASEPA stated that the agency has an agreement with the Ministry of Environment to prosecute all individuals found to be in violation of sanitation regulations at the mobile court located within the Ministry of Environment.

Jonah said that the Abia State Ministry of Environment had broken the agreement and that he had just ordered his men to take the rented busses out of the ministry. He stressed that neither the court nor ASEPA had ever entered the court or released any of the criminals.

In addition, Nwagbara Macaulay, a senior officer of ASEPA in the Umuahia zone, commented on the reported occurrence by saying that the agency had never freed an arrested sanitation offender from court.

“If they allowed defaulters to leave with ASEPA staff, that is their business,” he said, adding, “We don’t have the right and capacity to go to court to ask people to leave.”

The current administration in Abia State is primarily concerned with the well-being of its population, hence it has issued a strong call for everyone to adhere to the monthly sanitation practice.

After seeing the monthly sanitation exercise in Umuahia, Professor Ijeoma Iheukwumere, who is the Special Assistant on Environment to Governor Alex Otti, offered this recommendation.

Even though this month’s exercise was a success, the Special Assistant was disappointed to see several kids playing football on the streets rather than cleaning up after themselves.