Nasarawa State Government has arrested 42 residents for living in houses without toilet facilities, as part of efforts to curb open defecation and improve environmental sanitation across the state.
Mr Abubakar Mohammed, Chief Prosecution Officer, Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources, disclosed this while briefing newsmen after the June monthly environmental sanitation exercise on Saturday June 27 in Lafia.
Mohammed said the arrests were made during a joint enforcement operation by officials of the ministry and security agencies. He said that the operation also led to the arrest of 88 other persons across the 13 Local Government Areas of the state for engaging in business activities during the sanitation exercise, in violation of the state’s environmental sanitation law.
He said all the suspects were prosecuted by mobile courts in their respective LGAs to serve as a deterrent to others.
Mohammed explained that the enforcement exercise followed sustained public sensitization campaigns urging residents to provide basic sanitation facilities in their homes. He noted that the absence of toilets in many households contributed to the spread of water-borne diseases such as cholera, typhoid and diarrhoea, particularly during the rainy season.
The prosecution officer reaffirmed the state’s commitment to achieving open defecation-free status by 2028 in line with the National Roadmap on Sanitation.
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