The Sole Administrator of Rivers State Waste Management Agency (RIWAMA), Bro. Felix Obuah, has again reminded residents and those doing business in Port Harcourt, the state capital, and its environs, that the ban on dumping of refuse on the median and unauthorised places is still in force, warning that the Agency would arrest and prosecute offenders.

Obuah, who stated this shortly after an unscheduled monitoring of some major streets and roads in Port Harcourt metropolis on Wednesday, regretted that despite several warnings and advertisements by the Agency against indiscriminate dumping of refuse on the median, residents and those living and doing business in parts of the state capital have failed to heed the call.

He regretted that residents still cultivate the habit of indiscriminate dumping of refuse on the median and unauthorised places, making the task of cleaning of the city by the Agency, difficult.

“In the course of the unscheduled monitoring exercise, Obuah at the popular UST Roundabout caught a man dumping refuse on the median. But the culprit was lucky as the administrator showed leniency and cautioned him to remove the waste dropped on the median. He stood and watched the man clear the refuse he dumped on the median,” Obuah said in a statement issued by his media aide, Jerry Needam.

He was also quoted as saying: “The time of grace would soon be over and those who dump on the median and unauthorised places and outside the stipulated time of7pm to 12 midnightwould be arrested and prosecuted to serve as a deterrent to those who have refused to heed the several announcements, publications, enlightenments and warnings by the Agency.”

He appealed to residents and those living and doing business in Port Harcourt and its environs to help the Agency in its sanitation efforts, adding that littering and dumping of refuse on the median and major roads was an act of sabotage against the administration of Governor Nyesom Wike who has given all necessary support to the agency, to keep the state clean at all times.”