Open defecation | Credit: Unicef
The Ogun State Government has arrested 124 open defecation offenders for contravening the state environmental and health laws.
The task force arrested the suspects in different locations across the state.
Eighty-two of them were from Mowe-Ibafo, in the Obafemi Owode Local Government Area of the state.
The Special Adviser to the Governor on Environment and Chief Executive Officer of the Ogun State Waste Management Authority, Ola Oresanya, said all the offenders were sentenced to community service.
The Information Officer in the Ministry of Environment, Rotimi Oduniyi, in a statement on Thursday, quoted Oresanya as saying the offenders were apprehended as part of efforts to stop open defecation and maintain the environmental safety of residents.
He said, “The bad habit, which is mostly done late in the night and at dawn, has negative implications on the immediate communities where they are practised and the state at large, especially during this period when the world is ravaged by a pandemic.”
While insisting that the arrest of offenders would continue, Oresanya warned drivers of articulated vehicles, who transited the state, especially the Mowe-Ibafo axis, to stop defecating on medians and roadsides while making stopovers.
He urged them to visit public toilets provided by the state government instead of engaging in “such an ignominious practice.”
