Abia State government has advised residents to stop blocking gutters with garbage.
The Commissioner for Environment, Mr. Philomen Ogbonna, made the call in Umuahia on Saturday after monitoring this month’s clean up exercise, said the state government was committed to prevention of disease outbreak and flooding.
The commissioner who was represented by Mrs Happiness Akpulonu, the Head of Department, Pollution Control and Environmental Health in the ministry, expressed concern at the low compliance level in the June 2026 clean up exercise.
Ogbonna who condemned the attitude of some traders in Orie Ugba Market, Umuahia, where a refuse dump was discovered, warned that the state government may apply force against such environmental law offenders henceforth.
The commissioner charged sanitary inspectors in the state to increase their sensitization and monitoring exercises in urban and rural communities, to ensure that no part of the state is exposed to flooding or disease outbreak.
Also speaking on the sanitation exercise, the Chairman, Abia State House of Assembly Committee on Environment, Kalu Mba Nwoke, urged the Umuahia Capital Development Authority and other concerned authorities to ensure that blocked gutters on the Owerri Road and Isi Gate areas of Umuahia are opened up to prevent flood disaster.
Also, the leader of Hausa community in Abia State, Yaro Danlandi, who supervised the opening of blocked drainage around the Ama Hausa area of Umuahia on Saturday, reiterated his support for the clean environment initiatives of Governor Alex Otti.
Meanwhile, 66 persons were arrested in Umuahia on Saturday by the environmental Task Force and were brought to the mobile court for violating Abia State environmental laws.
The mobile court presided over by His Worship , O.C. Ibekwe, released seven out of the arrested 66 defaulters because of their health conditions and for identifying themselves as students. Nine others were ordered to carry out community services in Umuahia.
Fifty of the arrested defaulters were found guilty and ordered to pay fines to the state government.
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