The leadership of the All Progressives Congress, APC, in Ebonyi State and a social media commentator, Mr. Echefo Williams, have traded words over waste evacuation and the state of environmental sanitation in Abakaliki metropolis and other parts of the state.
Williams had, in a post on his official Facebook page, alleged that the Commissioner for Environment, Mr. Victor Chukwu, had repeatedly distanced himself from the deteriorating sanitation situation in the state capital by blaming contractors responsible for waste evacuation.
He further claimed that information available to him indicated that the contract for waste evacuation in Abakaliki was being handled by the Ebonyi State APC executive, led by the party chairman, Chief Stanley Okoro Emegha, rather than the Ministry of Environment.
According to him, “The fate of Abakaliki’s environment hangs in the balance because of political patronage. The pertinent question is: who awarded the waste evacuation contract in Abakaliki to the Ebonyi APC State Executive?”
Reacting to the allegations, the media aide to the APC state chairman, Mr. Polycarp Obinna Alegu, dismissed the claims as misleading and clarified the waste management structure in the state.
Alegu explained that Abakaliki metropolis is divided into 18 sanitation zones, each managed by designated contractors engaged by the Ministry of Environment.
According to him, the contractors, who are all Ebonyi indigenes, were employed as ad hoc personnel by the ministry and are paid monthly to evacuate refuse across the city.
“The contractors engage labourers and tipper drivers who move from one refuse dump to another daily
