Date: 2017-10-29

The monthly sanitation in Ilorin, the Kwara state capital, was on Saturday marred due to lack of refuse disposal vehicles and security agents to enforce sanitation laws.

News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that during the exercise between 7a.m and 10a.m no single refuse disposal vehicle was seen evacuating the heaps of waste dumped at roadsides by residents.

Some of the places monitored include the Emir road, the Oja Oba market, Surulere and lbrahim Taiwo and Murtala Mohammed roads among others.

Several residents, who had participated in the exercise in these places waited endlessly for refuse disposal vehicles during the sanitation period.

Security agents, officials of Man O War and other voluntary organisations, who usually assist to enforce restriction of movement during the exercise were also inadequate, as people and vehicles moved freely on some major roads.

The state Director of Environment, Alhaji Sikiru Olanipekun, in an interview with NAN blamed local councils for not deploying their waste vehicles to evacuate the garbage dumped at roadsides.

He said the state government will soon commercialise refuse collection in the state to further enhance prompt evacuation waste in different parts of the state.

Some of the residents of the state capital, who spoke with NAN during the exercise called for prompt evacuation of refuse dumped to checkmate the outbreak of diseases.