Residents of Abeokuta have urged the Ogun State Government to resume waste collection on major highways in the state capital.
Abeokuta’s highways have devolved into dump sites, with piles of garbage on all sides.
Our correspondent reports that road medians are not speared since they now ‘play host’ to stinky junks that ‘welcome visitors’ to the Gateway State.
The state government, on the other hand, stated it was aware of the situation and that it was working to resolve it.
The roads from Lafenwa to Adatan, Itoku, Ake, Itoko, Sapon, Isale Igbein, Panseke, Kuto, Abiola Way, Ijaye, and others were decorated with garbage which are being blown everywhere by the wind.
Mrs Adebisi Salami, a trader in Panseke, expressed concern that the State government’s failure to clean the city of trash could lead to disease outbreaks.
“Government should not forget that some people keep diapers in some of these things they drop by the road. So, leaving these wastes on the roads may give birth to diseases, especially now that the rains are here. Those concerned should do something about it,” Salami added.
Segun Showunmi, a governorship candidate in Ogun, stated, “I have been in the State since 1999 and I have never seen it so dirty.” We’ve never had it so awful before.”
Showunmi added that he could not “believe that an educated and enlightened group of people would be so filthy and live in filth.” I implore you, my friends, to assist me in rediscovering our dominance. We are the intelligent Yoruba people, a nation of many firsts.”
According to reports, the Ogun State Ministry of Environment is without a Commissioner following the dismissal of Hon. Abiodun Abudu-Balogun, who was accused of sexually harassing a minor in Ogun Waterside Local Government.
However, Ola Oresanya, Special Adviser to Governor Dapo Abiodun, stated that the government is making every effort to resume garbage evacuation in the metropolis as soon as possible.
According to him, residents of the community where the government dumps the refuse are revolting.
He also attributed the problem to a rise in the cost of diesel, which is used to power the rubbish vehicles.
“We are aware of this situation. We just finished a meeting. We have a problem with the community where we are dumping refuse. The community is revolting and these are people encroaching on the dumps and we don’t want to use force against them. This is a democratic dispensation. We have to dialogue with them. This is the major problem.
“There are vehicles with refuse inside that cannot dump them. So, we are trying to resolve that. We are going to resolve it in the next few days and we will clear up. We are aware (there is refuse everywhere in Abeokuta), and we are working seriously on that. We are careful, we don’t want to force things on the people.
“Even now, we are not relenting; our people are moving the waste. We only have to travel down a longer distance to go and dispose of it.
“On the cost of diesel, we’ve apologized to the people about this critical issue. We have to pay heavily to travel a longer distance to dispose of waste because of the cost of diesel and no extra cost is coming into the government. These are things we are working on.
“Another issue is that most of the people that pick the refuse on the road, they are mainly Hausas, they are fasting. They are mainly Muslims. Many of them are not even working now. To get labourers to work for you now, you have to struggle for the few ones you can get,” Oresanya said.
