By CHIDINMA EWUNONU-ALUKO

The Catholic Archdiocese of Ibadan has condemned the sealing of St. Mary?s Catholic Cathedral, Oke Padre, the seat of the Catholic Archbishop of Ibadan, over alleged environmental pollution.

The Archbishop of the Catholic Archdiocese, Most Rev. Gabriel Abegunrin, told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Wednesday in Ibadan that officials of the State Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources sealed the premises of the cathedral on Tuesday.

He said that the officials also imposed a N500,000 fine on the church over alleged toilet pollution.

Abegunrin said that the officials had initially locked up the toilet of the school situated inside the Cathedral on Monday, without notice to the church.

He said that the ministry claimed that its action followed a petition by unidentified persons in the neighbourhood that two persons allegedly died due to the pollution of the environment.

Abegunrin, who rebutted the allegation, said that the petition was however not provided by the official.

?We went to them and they told us to work on the toilet area of the school, which we started doing on Tuesday.

?They said if they see the work going on, they will open the toilet, but rather than opening the place, they came to lock the gate to the entire cathedral.

?The cathedral being a place of worship, where the Archbishop resides and many people use as parking space, we had to open it to give people access,? he said.

The Archbishop said that the pupils of the school have been asked to stay home till June 2, while work on the toilet was completed.

He said that the Church has demanded for the copy of the petition and proof of the deaths of two people, alleged by the petitioner.

?Otherwise the Church will have no option than taking legal action of defamation of character against the Ministry of Environment,? the Archbishop said.

Reacting, the Permanent Secretary, Oyo State Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources, Dr Sunday Ojelabi said the church was asked to pay N500, 000 as penalty for polluting the environment.

?We had complaints from people around the environment about the toilet pollution and that two people died as a result of it.

?When it?s an emergency situation, the law allows us to take an immediate action.

?They were supposed to evacuate their toilet and do fumigation, we reached out to them on Monday, they didn?t do anything about it and we went to lock the place on Tuesday.

?But they went and opened the place illegally,? Ojelabi said. (NAN)

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