DELTA State Environmental Taskforce has arrested 12 persons for urinating in public places and for violating other sanitation laws.
The persons arrested, including males and females were picked from different parts of Asaba.
The team, which comprised enforcement officials from the state Ministry of Environment and Delta State Capital Territory Development Agency, was led by the ministry’s Permanent Secretary, Dr. (Mrs.) Minnie Oseji.
The team arrested persons found urinating in public places and staff of organizations that left their premises unkempt and untidy, despite repeated warnings from the ministry authorities.
It was gathered that notices were sent to firms across the city with warnings that failure to comply after a specified period of time, defaulters would be prosecuted in line with the environmental protection laws.
The enforcement saw some of the defaulters paying the prescribed fines for non-compliance after they were picked up by the enforcement team.
Addressing newsmen, Dr. Oseji said the enforcement exercise was a collaboration between the Ministry of Environment, the state taskforce on environment and the capital territory development agency.
She said notices were sent to companies, hotels and others to keep their environment clean but many ignored the notice. According to her, they were also given notice to pay the prescribed fees but many also failed with the gentle notices.
Following their refusal to keep their environment clean and also failure to pay prescribed penalty fees, Dr.Oseji said it became imperative to enforce the law with arrests and prosecution of defaulters.
