Oyo Assembly probes alleged toxic waste sites

The royal fathers also declared that people of the areas were not hospitalised for any toxic waste symptoms.

But the State Commissioner for Health, Dr Isaac Owolabi who was represented by his Permanent Secretary told the Assembly that investigations by the ministry about the sites showed that the Exide Battery dumps were injurious to health. He therefore recommended that the underground water in the areas should undergo clinical test.

The House of Assembly has been investigating the alleged death of three people at the site and that 11 others were hospitalised as a result of hazards posed by the existence of the ‘’toxic waste dump sites.’’

It would be recalled that defunct Exide Battery Limited, which folded up some years ago, usually dumped their waste batteries in those areas, while the state government discovered only recently that some people had been loading the wastes and selling them.

The House of Assembly’s investigation had been based on the alarm raised recently by the State Commissioner for Environment and Water Resources, Alhaji Mukaila Majekodunmi Aborode following his visit to the dump site, when he ordered over 200 people working there to vacate the area with immediate effect or risk government sanction.

Subsequently, the Assembly summoned the Commissioner for Environment and Water Resources, as well as the Commissioner for Health and their Permanent Secretaries, Special Assistant to the Governor on Mineral Resources and the Chairman, Lagelu Local Government. Others summoned by the Assembly included the Commissioner of Police for the State Command, the Divisional Police Officer in-charge of Secretariat Police Station, Agodi, Ibadan, Zonal Director, South West, National Environmental Standards and Enforcement Agency [NESREA], Ibadan, Bale of Lalupon and Bale of Ile-Ogbon in Lagelu Local Government.

During the House sitting on Tuesday, it was resolved that measures should be taken to make the sites of toxic waste dump at Ile-Igbon and Lalupon environmentally safe and free of toxic wastes as all those who appeared before the Assembly agreed that the sites are injurious to health and could cause health hazards to the people around the areas.