15th August, 2017
Gbenro Adesina/Ibadan
The Oyo State Government has directed all religious centres and social clubs in the state to remove their external speakers within two weeks or face the wrath of the law, declaring that over 600 offenders have been tried for violating environmental laws.
The State Commissioner for Environment and Water Resources, Chief Isaac Ishola, who stated this during the Ministerial Briefing organised by the State Government at the Film Theatre, Ministry of Information Culture and Tourism, Secretariat, Ibadan, stated that over 200 Industries had been monitored this year for air emissions and effluent discharges with about 12 facilities sealed up.
Ishola, who addressed the press with his counterpart from Ministry of Information, Culture and Tourism, Mr. Toye Arulogun and Special Adviser to the Governor on Communication and Strategy, Mr. Yomi Layinka, explained that there had been series of stakeholder meetings with religious bodies, including the Pentecostal Fellowship of Nigeria, PFN, Christian Association of Nigeria, CAN, League of Imams, among others to demand full compliance, noting that the ministry had recorded significant levels of understanding and compliance while several stakeholders were yet to comply which led to the sealing up of three churches for flagrant contravention of the law.
He pointed out that the permissive level of sound according to the state environmental sanitation laws for industrial areas was 90Decibel(db), with a distance of 2.5 metres while 60db and 45db for the day and night at a distance of 5 metres for the residents, adding that any sound more than the stipulated had become noise which was detrimental to the health of the people.
Ishola, therefore, warned that after the two weeks ultimatum, any one caught would face the wrath of the law, saying that all industrial facilities in Oyo State today were being constantly inspected to monitor and control the impact of their activities in the environment such as Environmental Impact Assessment for new Industrial facilities and Environmental Audit Reports for existing ones.
The commissioner noted that government’s enforcement activities had led to about 400 street-trading offenders, 250 improper waste disposal offenders, two poultry farms, four illegal rearing of domestic animals, one Piggery farm and Temidire Plank Market being sanctioned through arraignment in the court and outright closure.