Ekiti State Government has convicted at least 574 people at the Mobile Court for Environmental Offences, for contravening the State Environmental Health and Sanitation Law, in the last one year.
The government has also warned against smoking Tobacco in public places, saying the Tobacco Prohibition Law would be strictly enforced.
At a ministerial press briefing in Ado Ekiti today, the Commissioner for Environment, Bisi Kolawole, said the offenders were jailed in accordance with the Ekiti State Environmental Law number 4 of 2004.
He said 354 offenders were convicted for flouting the monthly environmental sanitation exercise .
Kolawole, who declared that the offenders were given option of fines, added that 220 persons were jailed for offences ranging from “open defecation, dumping of refuse into drainages, and canals, and illegal trading on the roadsides,” among others.
The commissioner said the Waste Management Authority had generated N456m, while another N56m was generated through sawmill licensing, hammer control, minor forest produce, forest logging and toll collection.
He added that government had dredged over 37,000 metres of stream to control flooding in Ado Ekiti metropolis.
As stated by Kolawol, the ministry would no longer tolerate siting of petrol stations beside commercial or residential buildings.
“In spite of the sensitisation and moratorium given for all residential houses to have a toilet and a waste bin, people are still not cooperating. We have three months moratorium to meet these conditions but nobody has been prosecuted even a year after because Fayose operates a people-oriented government.
“It is now compulsory for every residence to have a toilet; failure to do this the state government shall take you to court,” he stated.