Ogun State Government has shut down the Food Agro and Allied Industries Limited, Ijako, Sango-Ota, for environmental infractions and disobedience to the state government’s order.
Senior Special Assistant to the Governor on Environment, who doubles as Chairman of the state’s Taskforce on Environmental Compliance and Enforcement, Farook Akintunde, said the malted sorghum producing company was found guilty of bypassing its effluent treatment plants, thereby releasing untreated waste-water to its immediate environment, especially to the newly-rehabilitated Lagos-Abeokuta Expressway, and destroying public infrastructure, as well as exposing residents of the area to untold hardship.
Akintunde also said the firm was equally culpable of degrading the environment through oil spillage, which is not only harmful but having a negative effect on the ground water of its immediate communities.
He said: “To worsen the issues, the company refused all previous entreaties to make corrections on the noted infractions and flagrantly disobeyed a stop-work order from the state government.
“The government, therefore, had no other alternative than to close down the company to restore environmental sanity in the company and stop it from further degrading its immediate communities.”
Akintunde said the company would remain shut until all the identified infractions are corrected and certified by the state government, adding that the state will not shy away from enforcing needed environmental compliance.
He, however, counselled those in the habit of committing environmental infractions to turn a new leaf as the state government is not interested in shutting down any of them, but in ensuring proper environmental governance within the state.
