No fewer than 26 people were convicted in Kogi State on Saturday for violating various sanitation laws during the first monthly sanitation exercise in the state.
The offenders were convicted by a mobile court presided over by Senior Magistrate Abdullahi Sulyman.
The Senior Magistrate in his ruling, said the conviction followed the evidence put before the court by prosecuting officer, Mr. Samuel Adewuyi, of the Kogi State Waste Sanitation Board.
He stated that the punishment was meant to serve as a deterrent to future offenders, adding that first offenders were fined N500.
The General Manager of Kogi State Waste Sanitation Board, Mrs Florence Joseph, in an interview with journalists in Lokoja said the offenders contravened the state sanitation laws. She stated that some of the
convicted offenders were given minor sentences while some were fined N500.
She urged residents of the state to maintain habit of cleanliness, adding that it was regrettable that despite the massive sensitisation campaign by the government on the sanitation exercise, some people still violated the orders on restriction of human and vehicular movements.
She said the exercise across the state was largely successful and assured that her board will work towards making future exercises more effective.
The Kogi State Deputy Governor, Mr. Yomi Awoniyi, while monitoring the exercise warned that the state would be more severe with sanitation offenders in the future according to the the law.
He described the sanitation exercise as fundamental to keeping the state clean and urged the people not to see the exercise as government being hard on the people, but as a resolve to making the state more habitable.
The deputy governor urged the people of the state to maintain a culture of cleanliness. While noting that the sanitation exercise was largely successful, he called for improvement in future exercises.
