Oyo State governor, Seyi Makinde has come out to say that a hygienic environment is important in his state.

He recently set up a new environmental task force to curb environmental nuisance and indiscriminate dumping of refuse in Oyo.

According to the Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Environment, Dr. Bashir Bello, the task force committee has membership is drawn from several stakeholders, an association of market men and women, artisans, youths, Nigeria Medical Association, Nigeria Bar Association and International Federation of Women Lawyers, representatives of the Christian Association of Nigeria and Muslim wing.

He added that it is important for the people to have an attitudinal change towards the way their environment is maintained.

His words, “My assignment here today is to introduce to you our critical partners in this business of ensuring that our people have attitudinal change towards the way we maintain our environment.”

“You will agree with me that virtually on a daily basis, our people abuse the environment, this has had negative effects on our health and other aspects of our lives. This task force is another step initiated by His Excellency, Governor Seyi Makinde towards achieving a neat and decent environment and very soon, we will launch a new solid waste architecture, but this is just a step towards it, it is an OPERATION ZERO TOLERANCE FOR FILTH and we are starting the mobilization today.”

“The essence is not punitive, we are not interested in sending people to prison or fining people, that’s not what informed this, it is not the principle of the foundation.”

“The essence is to ensure that we maintain a healthy population so that our people can spend less if they are to spend at all in the hospitals, we want a clean environment that is friendly and attractive to investors.”

“It is very important if you want to have a healthy living, this era of global warming and climate change, there is need for us be very careful the way we handle our environment, we are seeing series of disasters orchestrated by a change in the climate.”

“One of the major reasons responsible is the non-challenge attitude of our people in the cause of disposing of their waste. “So the task force has been put together to assist in the maintenance of orderliness and preservation of our environment.”