The Sole Administrator of the Rivers State Waste Management Agency (RIWAMA), Felix Obuah has said that the Agency would henceforth arrest and prosecute anyone who dumps tyres on the median of roads and streets in Port Harcourt, the state capital, and its environs.

In a statement issued in Port Harcourt, Obuah said the decision became necessary as the continued dumping of disused tyres on the median had become a nuisance as those items defaced the city, thereby affecting the good job of the Agency in keeping the state clean and healthy.

The RIWAMA boss said the ugly situation was becoming worrisome, despite the repeated warnings by the Agency to residents and people doing business in Port Harcourt and its environs to dispose disused tyres and other wastes only at approved receptacles.

“It is most unfortunate that RIWAMA had on several occasions used both the electronic and print media to warn residents and people doing business in Port Harcourt and other parts of the state, to maintain a clean and healthy lifestyle by disposing their wastes, including tyres at the appropriate receptacles, but these warnings had been ignored,” he said.

Bro. Obuah disclosed that a special taskforce had already been constituted to monitor all major roads and streets in Port Harcourt and its environs with a view to arrest and charge defaulters to Sanitation Court to serve as deterrent to others.

He described those involved in the act, and particularly the heaping of disused tyres on the median of major roads and streets as unpatriotic citizens, who were bent to frustrate the efforts of the Agency as well as Governor Nyesom Wike, who is working assiduously to restore the Garden City status of the state.

Obuah appealed to residents and those doing business in the state to take the warnings by the Agency seriously and keep healthy lifestyle by managing their waste in line with the directives of RIWAMA.

“The task of managing our environment should be the business of everyone in the state and there won’t be need to arrest and prosecute anyone if residents and all those doing business in the state abide by the simple instruction of bagging their wastes or carrying other heavier waste materials like tyres, to the nearest RIWAMA-approved receptacles for prompt disposal,” Obuah stated.

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