Governor Chukwuma Soludo of Anambra State has been asked to as a matter of urgency place a ban and stop the scavenging and selling of scraps in Anambra State.
The call which was made by the Anambra People’s Assembly (APA), in a statement made available to newsmen in Awka, the Anambra State capital, said that the trade encourages crime and criminality among those involved in the trade.
In the statement signed by High Chief Tony Umeh, the group said those involved in the scrap trade have not in any way brought development to the State, rather they caused havoc, environmental degradation, crime, and criminalities. Because most of the iron used in Calvert’s has been criminally removed or stoled for commercial purposes.
They said about 95 percent of those engaged in scrap collections intrude into people’s private homes and steal their valuables and money, individual household materials, converting same as scraps to sell
to make money, without actually knowing the worth of what they were vandalizing and the majority of them are not even residents or have a stake in the development of the state.
“The Governor should ban them with immediate effect.
They should arrest people who go about vandalizing people’s property in the name of collecting scraps” just like the Delta State government, said the group.
The A.P.A. called on the State Government to create dump sites where those who want to dispose of their waste materials should dump them.
The People’s Assembly asked Governor Soludo to initiate an executive bill to the State House of Assembly which should pass the law banning scrap collection in the State within 30 days by extension the whole South East.
The law, said the group, should make it a criminal offense to engage in the collection of scraps popularly known as “iron condemn” cart pushers.
Said the group: “They should emulate Delta and Rivers States which have banned: “iron condemn” in the States.
The state Government should direct Local Governments to affect arrest of those who would defy the law, still claiming that they are “iron condemn people”.
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