UTQEN supports Oyo Govt’s clean-up Ibadan effort

• As Govt issues 48-hour ultimatum to owners of abandoned trucks

Owners of abandoned Trucks and Containers on Ojoo-Iwo Road Express axis have been warned to take the vehicles off the road sides in the next 48 hours or risk the facing sanctions from the Oyo State Government

The chairman of the State’s Environmental Task Force Committee and Special Adviser to the Governor on Security, retired Commissioner of Police Fatai Owoseni, made this known on Sunday, while monitoring the evacuation of heaps of refuse on the Ojoo-Iwo road express way organised by Union of Tipper and Quarry Employers of Nigeria (UTQEN), Oyo State chapter.

While speaking during the clean-up exercise, which was held at the Ojoo expressway and its environs, Owoseni commended the initiative of the Association in assisting the Government to make the environment cleaner and safer.

He enjoined other associations to emulate the UTQEN in supporting the State Government to make the State habitable for all and sundry.

He said: “I appreciate the Union, which joined us in this mission, donating their trucks freely for us to work today and for bringing out their members for this exercise.

“I also will appeal to the good people of this State to desist from dropping refuse just anywhere anyhow. The median along the road is not the proper place to drop refuse. Everybody in the neighborhood should key into getting contractors, the PSPs to pick their refuse. This has been the practice but people stopped it at a certain period of time. So, they should support the initiative of the State Government to make Oyo State, especially Ibadan.”

Owoseni noted that over 20 trucks were brought out by the Union to rid the axis of refuse and filth, saying: “It is a good initiative that we have seen an organised body supporting the efforts of Governor Makinde. They brought out about 20 trucks this morning with their members to join us in this process. If we have people buying into government’s efforts like this, we will get everything cleared in no small time.

“The most challenging thing is the buy-in of our people. We have been doing a lot of enlightenment. We met with different market leaders to sensitise them and let them know that everybody must join the state in getting rid of this refuse and sustaining the effort.

“We are also advising the people on the need to adopt the system that has been in place; using the contractors and PSP but it has been a herculean task.”

He charged the people of the State to desist from indiscriminate dumping of refuse on the medians and roads, urging them to embrace the culture of waste-bagging, which he said would play a significant role in eliminating the challenge of indiscriminate waste dumping in the State.

Owoseni maintained that the Governor Seyi Makinde-led administration had Zero Tolerance for indiscriminate dumping of refuse in the state, stating that it was already making progress in the area of refuse disposal and management.

“To change the mind of the people is a very difficult thing. In all of these, we are making progress, it is just matter of time and I believe that the good people of Oyo State will appreciate what this administration is doing on solid waste disposal.

“We want to see how it works in this emergency period and, of course, the Governor has set a template that will solve the issue of waste disposal permanently in Oyo State.

“So, by the time emergency period elapses, we would have gotten a workable template where respective MDAs that are supposed to do their work will be able to do it and sustain it,” he said.

In his remark, the Chairman of UTQEN, Comrade Wasiu Yekeen, said that the clean-up exercise organized by his association was meant to support the State Government in making Ibadan cleaner and safer.

He said the association was impressed by the way the Governor Makinde-led administration was handling the issue of environmental sanitation in the State.