The Ogun State government has issued a strong warning to residents, urging them to avoid disposing of deceased infants in public waste bins along major roads.
Commissioner for Environment, Ola Oresanya, addressed the media in Abeokuta, expressing concern about the inappropriate use of public waste bins in the state capital. He deplored the troubling practice of dumping deceased infants and feces into bins situated along major roads and markets.
Reacting to the prevalent issue of indiscriminate refuse dumping and open defecation on the Panseke pedestrian bridge in Abeokuta, Oresanya disclosed that the government is actively planning measures to secure the bridge from beggars, robbers, and destitute individuals who have taken control of it.
“We put out a giant waste bin along the road going towards the market (Panseke market), we put another smaller one around the place where okada riders are staying so that they can be putting their waste inside it, but every time we go there to clear the wastes, we found out that the bins contain faeces and dead babies.
“When their children die, they don’t bury them, they will just dump them in the bins. There is a major social problem in that area that needs special attention and we are looking at it holistically,” Oresanya said.