Plateau Environmental Protection and Sanitation Agency (PEPSA), has been charged to prioritize reviewing laws guiding its mandate actualisation to enhance stiffer punishment for defaulters during monthly Sanitation exercise.

Chief Magistrate Yop Ashom believed such measures if come into existence will go a long way in curtailing the influx of defaulters who consistently bent on sabotaging Sanitation guidelines.

The Magistrate who assigned with PEPSA sanitation enforcement team for the month of July exercise, confirmed that defaulters were apprehended and charged accordingly by the mobile court.

Our correspondent who monitor the sanitation exercise in Jos North local government area, particularly in Yantaya, Delumi, Filin-Ball and Congo-Russia learnt there was low compliance as the exercise centered on house-to-house inspection.

According to the Chief Magistrate Yop Ashom who shed her experience in the course of the exercise, "moving  around from Terminus to Filin- Ball and then to Congo-Russia,We arrested people who were on transit, those engaged in commercial transportation, and some others who defaulted because their environments were not kept clean.We have been able to convict and fine about 22 people
"Generally, to me, the level of compliance with the sanitation exercise is very, very low, especially as we moved through the communities. The compliance is not as it should be.

"A lot of people feign ignorance. They claim they were not aware that today is sanitation day. But the information is everywhere. Everybody knows that in Plateau State, every last Saturday of the month is set aside for sanitation. So I do not think that is an excuse.

"More so, ignorance of the law is not an excuse. Nobody can stand before the court and say he is ignorant of the fact that there is sanitation today. We do not regard that as an excuse", the Magistrate stated.

On the way forward to bring about paradigm shift in the near future as far as sanitation exercise is concern, Ashom acknowledged without a healthy environment there will be no healthy people in the communities.

"The truth is that if we do not have a healthy environment, we will not have healthy people in our communities and in Plateau State as a whole. So there needs to be stiffer punishment against defaulters.

"In fact, there is a need to review the laws to ensure appropriate punishment for defaulters. Some people do not feel the impact of the current fines, and because they do not feel it, they are likely to continue committing the same offence over and over again.

"But where there are stiffer punishments that make people truly feel the consequences of defaulting, they are more likely not to commit the offence again", She suggested.
PEPSA Director of Admin, Dauda Pate Izang who expressed displeasure over the attitude of some residents, emphasized that sanitation is not just a routine exercise. 

"Sanitation is a civic duty, a public health intervention, and the responsibility of all Plateau people to keep the environment clean, because a dirty environment is a sick environment. A sick environment means sick people.

"For us as government, anybody who is not participating in sanitation, we consider that person an enemy to the government, an enemy to his family, and an enemy to himself because you need to keep the environment clean", Izang noted.

The director of admin also laments the poor condition of some drainages as he gave matching order to those who erect their shops on water ways to do the needful before the agency come after them.

"I want to encourage the entire people of Plateau State, particularly those in Jos North. We heard a rumour that there is an outbreak of cholera, and we even lost somebody within the local government. All this happened as a result of open defecation and a dirty environment.

"I also called on all our religious leaders and community leaders to always encourage and sensitize people on how to embark on sanitary activities every month. Even though it is not every day that you can engage in sanitation, it should become a culture that every day you keep your environment clean", Izang added.