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EKITI GOVERNMENT BEGINS REGULATION OF ACTIVITIES OF SCAVENGERS
…commences biometric registration
To prevent the repeat of what happened in Abuja in Ekiti state where some scavengers allegedly stole sewage manhole covers, the state government has held a meeting with scavengers on the need for them to be law abiding and desist from destruction of government and residents property while scouting for metals and other objects.
At the meeting, it was agreed that data of all scavengers across the sixteen local governments of the state would be collated for proper monitoring while they would also provide guarantors before they could operate.
Addressing the scavengers, Ekiti state Director General of community Communications, Mrs Mary Osho-Omotosho said, scavengers activities would be regulated as number and reflexive jackets would be given to them for proper identification.
Her words: “We have made recommendations to the Ekiti State House of Assembly and the Speaker put up a committee to look into that. After this engagement, the House of Assembly will have a public hearing about their activities.
“They also agreed that we should regulate their activities to the point that we should capture them under the tax net because they don’t even pay tax. We will work with the Ekiti State Internal Revenue Service and the office of Attorney General of Ekiti State to have that conclusion we have on the form and then we begin the enforcement.”
In his submission, Senior Special Adviser to the Governor on security matters, Retired Brigadier Ebenezer Ogundana noted that the step was also taken to protect life and property of the people, saying some scavengers hide under the activity to perpetrate evil.
Brig. Gen. Ogundana, who regretted the nefarious activities of the scavengers, reaffirmed the state government’s unwavering commitment to safeguarding residents of the State.
He said: “This gathering is to ensure that we guarantee the security of our people because we have been receiving a lot of reports of these scavengers who go into the communities and start removing what they are not supposed to remove and some of the infrastructures government installed for the benefit of the people.”
On his own, the Director General of waste Management Agency in Ekiti State, Mr Sukanmi Onipede called on members of the public to report unlawful activities of scavengers to security agents or authorities in their different communities.
Also, Director General, Bureau of Civic Orientation and Citizenship, Olawumi Famuyiwa emphasized that community outreach and sensitization will be carried out to ensure that the appropriate information is disseminated effectively.
“We are going to cascade the information down to local government levels, to each zone and community to ensure that the message is passed to them effectively because if they don’t get the information from the right source, there might be misinformation. We are going to speak to them in the language they understand and get the information to everybody.”
In an interview, some of the scavengers promised to obey the directives of the Government with a promise to expose bad eggs among them to security agents.
