Ogun State government, yesterday, faulted the dumping of dead babies and faeces in public waste bins along major roads, warning residents to refrain from the act.
Commissioner for Environment, Ola Oresanya, gave the warning while speaking with newsmen in Abeokuta.
Reacting to indiscriminate dumping of refuse and open defecation on the multi-million naira Panseke pedestrian bridge in Abeokuta, the commissioner said government plans to secure the bridge against beggars, robbers and the destitute who had taken it over.
He said: “We put out a giant waste bin along the road going towards the market (Panseke market). We put another smaller one around the place where okada riders park, so that they can put their waste in the bin. But every time we go there to clear the wastes, we find out that the bins contain faeces and dead babies.
“When their children die, they don’t bury them; they will just dump them in the bins. There is a major social problem in that area that needs special attention, and we are looking at it holistically.”
On the state of the pedestrian bridge, Oresanya said: “We have to put gates there to stop the destitute from sleeping on the bridge in the night and defecating on it. What we heard is that people can’t use that bridge at night because the destitute that stay there rob people, sleep, and defecate there. So, they have to be locking that bridge around 6:00 p.m. to prevent the destitute from sleeping there in the night.”
