Ogun agency shuts market over dirty environment

By Adejoke Adeleye

Ogun State Waste Management Authority, OGWAMA, has shut Ijebu- Mushin market in Ijebu East Local Government over dirty environment and indiscriminate dumping of waste.

The Special Adviser to the Governor on OGWAMA, Farook Akintunde said the measure became necessary after several warnings to the market leaders and the traders on the need for them to operate in a clean environment by stopping indiscriminate dumping of their waste in the market surrounding

“To make their behavior unacceptable, they refuse to patronize the PSP assigned to them for proper evacuation of their waste and prefer to dump their waste indiscriminately in the market”

“Despite this, OGWAMA decided to clean the market through mechanical evacuation of their heaps of waste and thereafter provided a Roll on Roll Off Bin for them to deposit their waste for easy evacuation, but they refuse to make use of the bin and decided to still dump their waste indiscriminately in the market”

“The state government through OGWAMA will not fold its hand and watch few traders to put the health and well-being of a flourishing town into jeopardy by operating in such a filthy environment,” Akintunde added.

He therefore called on the traders and their leaders to clean the whole market and inculcate the habit of using the bin instead of dumping them indiscriminately in the market surrounding as this unacceptable act would attract flies that will contaminate their wares that would be sold to the public thereby spreading avoidable diseases to the public.

Akintunde said until these are done, the market will remain shut in the overriding public interest.