South East breaking News
About 83 defaulters were arrested and taken to court for disobeying the Abia State sanitation Programme for the month of September ,2024, even as Abia State House of Assembly frowns at the extortive attitude of some police officers in State during the sanitation exercise, which held on Saturday, 28th September,, 2024, instead of taking them to sanitation court set up by the government.
The Chairman, Abia State House of Assembly committee on environment,Hon. Kalu Mba Nwoke, made this known while interacting with Newsmen at the Abia State High court premises Umuahia shortly after the September edition of the exercise, said some police officers from Central Police Station were arresting and extorting defaulters.
According to , “I observed fuller and better compliance than what we witnessed last month. I also observed with dismay the attitude of the Nigeria Police attached to Umuahia Central Police Station, CPS whereby, they rent a private bus and are going about arresting defaulters.
“Unfortunately, instead of bringing them to the mobile sanitation court set up by Abia State Government for the trial of sanitation defaulters, they instead take the defaulters to their stations and collect various amounts of money, ranging from N10, 000 to N25,000 according to each defaulter’s negotiation ability and then let them go.”
Meanwhile ,in his reaction, the Commissioner for Environment, Philemon Asonye Ogbonna, represented by the Director in charge of Environment, Rev. Joseph Udechukwu Ukachukwu, said, “Most of the police officers become escorts to most passengers during the exercise “