By Bisola Adeyemo
The Rivers state government is set to arrest and persecute all sanitation law offenders within the state.
The Sole Administrator, Rivers State Waste Management Agency (RIWAMA), Mr Felix Obuah, said this in Port Harcourt.
Obuah issued the warning in a statement signed by his Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Mr Jerry Needam, and made available to newsmen on Thursday.
According to him, ”Scavengers operating within Port Harcourt, Rivers State capital and its environs, have continued to deface the city, despite series of warnings by the state’s waste management agency.
“While waste managers strive towards achieving prompt waste disposal and sanity within the city, scavengers on the other hand have been sabotaging these laudable efforts.
”The agency will no longer tolerate flagrant flouting of the laws and restrictions on scavenging which constitutes a menace to road users.
“Their actions have continued to jeopardise all efforts to keep the state clean. Henceforth, we shall arrest and prosecute all sanitation law offenders.
“We have had an experience in the past where some security personnel forcefully came to ask for release of those arrested for flouting sanitation rules.
“Such acts would no longer be tolerated in the state. Nobody is above the laws of the state. Defaulters in this regard will be decisively dealt with,” Obuah added.