AMAC Launches Clean Environment Campaign

In a bid to tackle open defecation and encourage cleanliness in Abuja and environs, the Abuja Municipal Area Council (AMAC) has launched a citywide clean-up initiative tagged ‘Clean Environment Campaign.’

At a media briefing on Saturday in Abuja, the Public Relations Officer AMAC Environmental Services Department, Joshua Jekwu Ogbonna, said: “The rate of open defecation going on in Abuja is not practiced even in the villages of many smaller African countries; careless trashing of waste by passers-by is commonly practiced, even around the presidential villa.”

He noted that these unhygienic practices have made it easier for mosquitoes to breed and the situation has reduced the value of many houses in Abuja.

Speaking further, Ogbonna said: “The hygienic level of our food items is very low, which has made it possible for for typhoid fever to increase in Abuja.Therefore, the office of the Senior Special Adviser to the Honourable Chairman of AMAC on Environment and Health Services, Aloy Etim, has launched a serious war against dirt in AMAC, in line with the vision of the Honourable Chairman, Hon. Christopher Maikalangu.”

He said though the campaign was aimed at fighting against every unhygienic practice in AMAC, the main objective was to eradicate mosquitoes in the Area Council.

Ogbonna added that a task force will be established to carry out enforcement, and mobile courts will be set up to prosecute environmental law offenders. He, therefore, called on AMAC residents and the press to partner with the Area Council in the clean-up campaign.