ABIA: Ikpeazu Declares Emergency After Public Outcry Against ‘Dreadful’ Sanitation

Following public outcry over the off-putting sight of environmental wastes in major cities of Abia State, Governor Okezie Ikpeazu has declared state of emergency on sanitation in the state.

Governor Ikpeazu, in a statement by his chief press secretary, Onyebuchi Ememanka, said he will sign an executive order to create “distinct” waste management authorities in Aba North,  Aba South,  Osisioma Ngwa, Obingwa, Ugwunagbo, Umuahia South and Umuahia North local government areas

“Executive Secretaries shall be appointed immediately to manage these Waste Management Authorities in these specified Local Government Areas,” said Ememanka.

In response to the outcry, the statement said Ikpeazu will also embark on a four-week personal coordination of waste wanagement activities in the entire Aba metropolis, beginning from Friday, September 27.

Ememanka said the administration believes that “sanity and discipline” will be restored in the entire waste management system of the state within the emergency period.

Meanwhile, the move is coming against the backdrop of increasing challenges of waste management in Abia under the current administration.

The issue had prompted the public and members of the Nzuko Ummuna sociocultural group in Abia to cry out to the Ikpeazu-led administration and prominent politicians in the state.

Even though the state government had previously launched mobile courts to try sanitation offenders, Abians have continued to lament how the current administration has been unable to address poor waste management in the state.

The indigenes have lamented how Ikpeazu allegedly failed to effectively address the issue of sanitation despite once serving as the deputy general manager of the Abia State Environmental Protection Agency (ASEPA).

The deteriorating state of waste management in the state prompted some members of Nzuko Umunna to cry out to Senator Enyinnaya Abaribe, who represents Abia-South senatorial district of Abia State, on the matter.

Abaribe, in reaction, said he had been receiving phone calls on the situation which described as “dreadful”.

The senator said he had engaged the relevant authorities in the state and that they promised to address the issue in a couple of weeks.

Meanwhile, some members of Nzuko Umunna and other senior Abia citizens believe that the enormity of the issue of waste management in the state cannot be addressed in a matter of weeks.

Some claimed that the sanitation problem in the state had lingered because the current administration was taking non-committal approach to addressing it.

They regretted that the problem had gotten to the stage that the group had to cry out to politicians at the federal level when the responsibility of clearing wastes in the state lies solely on state and local governments who collect and manage the state’s Internally Generated Revenue (IGR).

Meanwhile, the outcry against poor sanitation in Abia is coming at a time that indigenes are also lamenting that Abia is allegedly taking the back seat in terms of governance when compared other south eastern states.