The Ogun State government has suspended three environmental consultancy firms for professional negligence and culpability in the alleged pollution from closed Used Lead Acid Battery (ULAB) recycling companies in the Ogijo area of the state.
Commissioner for Environment, Ola Oresanya, announced the suspension during a review meeting of the Process Audit of the closed companies in the Conference Room of the Ministry of Environment, State Secretariat, Oke Mosan, Abeokuta.
The consultancy firms are Vyne Nurt Limited, Core Environmental Services Limited and Saag Chemicals Nigeria Limited.
According to Oresanya, the three firms attached to the ULAB companies were found culpable during the audit, which confirmed that some of the pollution abatement devices the companies were supposed to install were not installed. They failed to report the companies’ correct status to the state government, thereby demonstrating professional negligence.
“Review of the firm’s reports on the companies during the audit process shows that their reports were deficient in reporting the correct situation to the state government.
“To have a clearer picture, we invited five consultancy firms involved and gave them the chance to defend their positions on the reporting gap.
“Two of the environmental consultancy firms were able to provide some explanations, which, though not entirely satisfactory, were given the opportunity to amend their ways, while the three suspended firms deliberately absented themselves from the review meeting, knowing fully well that they are complicit,” Oresanya stated.
The commissioner stated that the
Ogun State government had no choice but to suspend them from all environmental consultancy services in the state pending the time they will be able to clear their names from any form of complicity allegations against them in the Process Audit of the closed ULAB companies
He added that the Federal Ministry of Environment and the National Environmental Standard and Enforcement Agency, NESREA, have been notified on the decision.
