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Owing to
indiscriminate dumping of refuse in the channelized Ogunpa River during
the night, the Oyo State Ministry of Environment and Water Resources is
proposing to raise a team to watch over the river at nights.

The state
commissioner for environment and water resources, Majekodunmi Aborode,
who disclosed this in Ibadan on Thursday, said he had discovered that
residents around the channel hide under the cover of the night to
litter the river with refuse. The river has occasionally wrecked havoc
in the town, when its clogged channels filled with rainfall.

According to the
commissioner, security men from the ministry currently parade the
stretch of the Ogunpa channel on two shifts, between 6.00am to noon,
and noon to 6.00pm, to prevent dumping of refuse into it.

“The indiscriminate
dumping of refuse in the Ogunpa channels is done after 6.00pm when
people are not supervising. I have realized that we need to operate 24
hours. But there must be adequate security for men who will do the
night job,” he said.

Abusing the environment

The commissioner
and his team were also out yesterday to compel traders who display
their wares on the newly expanded Dugbe-Queen Cinema Road to remove
them. Mr Aborode regretted that despite the huge amount the government
had spent on the project, the people still abuse it

“We have discovered
that the only language our people understand is that of legislation and
enforcement,” he said, as he promised to make the exercise a regular
occurrence.

The commissioner
also informed that the state was still searching for a balance in the
area of environmental protection and management, saying, “we are not
where we are supposed to be. We are still in search of balance”.