‘Stop Dumping Dead Babies, Faeces In Public Waste Bins” – Ogun Commissioner

Ogun State Government has warned residents of the state to stop dumping corpses of babies and faeces in public waste bins placed along major roads.

The Commissioner for Environment, Ola Oresanya gave the warning in an interview with New Telegraph on Sunday.

Oresanya lamented that residents of Abeokuta, the state capital had been abusing public waste bins placed along major roads and markets by dumping dead babies and faeces in them.

The commissioner who was reacting to the indiscriminate dumping of refuse and open defecation on the multimillion naira Panseke pedestrian bridge in Abeokuta, said the government is making plans to secure the bridge from beggars, robbers and the destitute who have taken over the bridge.

Findings by New Telegraph revealed that the bridge, tagged the longest pedestrian bridge in West Africa, constructed by the administration of Senator Ibikunle Amosun had been taken over by robbers, beggars and the destitute.

“We put out a giant waste bin along the road going towards the market (Panseke market), we put another smaller one around the place where okada riders are staying so that they can be putting their waste inside it, but every time we go there to clear the wastes, we found out that the bins contain faeces and dead babies.

“When their children die, they don’t bury them, they will just dump them in the bins. There is a major social problem in that area that needs special attention and we are looking at it holistically”, Oresanya said.

Speaking on the deteriorating condition of the pedestrian bridge, Oresanya said, “The bridge was constructed so that the pedestrians can use it to cross the road, but on that same bridge, you will find out that only a few pedestrians can use it, people on a wheelchair, physically challenge will not be able to cross that bridge is their any alternative organized for them? No, but we are working on that.

“So that bridge in itself has that kind of effect maybe the construction because I don’t see areas there where physically challenged people can climb that bridge. We need to redefine and probably put a zebra crossing around that area where motorists will have a place to wait for pedestrians and for the physically challenged to cross safely on pedestrian walkways in the area.

“We have to put gates there to stop the destitute from sleeping on the bridge in the night and defecating on it because what we heard is that in the night people can’t use that bridge at night and the destitute that stay there, they rob people, sleep and defecate there.

“We cannot put policemen there to stay on the bridge to work who will sleep there overnight, so they have to be locking that bridge around 6 pm to stop destitute in the night.”

Source:- Newtelegraph