VOICE AIR MEDIA News Update

The Ekiti State Government, has expressed worries over the poor disposition of Ekiti residents to the monthly environmental sanitation exercise in the state.

The Deputy Governor, Monisade Afuye, said this in Ise-Ekiti, on Saturday, while monitoring the monthly environmental sanitation exercise at Ise-Orun Local Government Area.

Mrs Afuye performed the duty in the company of the Secretary to the State Government, Dr. Habibat Adubiaro, the Chairman of Ise-Orun Local Government Council, Ayodele Akinluyi.

Afuye, in a statement by her media aide, Victor Ogunje, maintained that the exercise was introduced to mitigate wasteful spending on contagious, but avoidable diseases that can breakout due to poor environmental cleanliness by citizens.

During the monitoring exercise, the deputy governor stopped over at Ogbese, Obada and Afolu, which are farmsteads under Ise- Ekiti and enforced strict compliance with the sanitation policy among rural dwellers, especially in the Hausa quarters and among operators of local palm oil-producing facilities in the communities.

While addressing the Ise-Ekiti inhabitants on the significance of the exercise, Afuye stated that health and human services are a priority of the Governor Biodun Oyebanji administration.

She said: “We have gone round and discovered that our people are not really complying with this monthly exercise, and this is the same all over Ekiti. To us, it is worrisome and unacceptable.

“Ekiti has been rated as having the highest life expectancy in Nigeria by reputable international organisations and this programme is an avenue to ensure that opportunistic killer diseases don’t have their ways in our dear state.”

She appealed to council bosses across the state to instruct their sanitation department to mount an aggressive campaign against indiscriminate dumping of refuse and sewage in canals and around residential areas.

She added: “I want to plead with our people to take this programme very seriously. It was conceptualised to safeguard their lives. Our people must know that health is wealth. You can only pursue your day to day activities when you are healthy.”