The Anambra State House of Assembly has summoned the Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of the Anambra State Waste Management Agency (ASWAMA) to appear before it today, October 27, to explain his flagrant disobedience to existing laws of the state, ANAMBRA PEOPLE reports.
The summon came on the heels of a motion of urgent public importance moved by the lawmaker representing Nnewi-North constituency Hon. Nonso Okafor Smart who brought to the notice of the House that the new sanitation rates and levies introduced by ASWAMA were in complete contravention of the existing laws which established the agency.
Okafor in his motion which was seconded by Hon. Lawrence Chukwuweike Ezeudu, said that there is an existing law in the state tagged Anambra State Waste Management Law 2015 which according to him stipulated how various fees were paid for waste management in the state.
He said the new fees introduced by the waste management authority were in total disregard and disrespect for the already existing laws which he said were not taken cognisance of by the ASWAMA Boss especially as it concerns imposing waste management fees on rural areas as captured in the new levies.
Okafor further disclosed that the ASWAMA boss should be summoned to the House of Assembly on the next adjourned date to explain to Ndi-Anambra his flagrant abuse of existing laws and show of executive rascality.
Ejike Okechukwu of Anaocha 2 state constiuency described the new fees introduced to the citizens by ASWAMA as completely outrageous and an embarrassment to the Governor Professor Chukwuma Charles Soludo, adding that the governor may not be aware of the decision arbitrarily taken by the waste management authority.
Okechukwu noted that civil servants still went home with N30,000 minimum wage and that the harsh economic situation in the country is taking a serious toll on the citizenry; that the ASWAMA boss took a unilateral decision without recourse to the untold hardship his decision and actions brought upon Ndi-Anambra especially the peasant rural dwellers in the hinterlands.
Also, Emeka Aforka, the Deputy Majority Leader and member representing Orumba-North state constiuency, faulted the decision of the waste management authority, saying that Orumba-North was completely a rural area and imposing waste levies on them was most inhumane.
He added that the decision to increase sanitation fees without due recourse to existing laws was constitutionally wrong as well as an act of insubordination to the House of Assembly that enacted the law on waste evacuation and fees thereto in 2015.
The Speaker of the House, Rt. Hon. Dr Uche Victor Okafor ruled on the matter, saying that the House has resolved that the ASWAMA boss must appear before it on Thursday to explain his actions and decisions. That the new waste management fees have been suspended forthwith.
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