Governor Adams Oshiomhole of Edo State has pledged the state government’s commitment to partner with the Federal Government’s National Environmental Standards and Regulations Enforcement Agency (NESREA) to tackle environmental problems in the country.
Oshiomhole was speaking weekend when he granted audience to the Chairman and Chief Executive officer of the National Environmental Standards and Regulations Enforcement Agency in Benin City.
According to the Governor “we need inter-ministerial approach sometimes. Some of the flooding disasters we are experiencing in Edo State was as a result of negligence on the part of some engineers involved in the designing of roads.
“The monster we are contending with at Queen Ede is a result of the design error arising from the construction of the Benin-Asaba road dualization. Now that the road has been dualised, some people had been driven from the community as a result of flooding which ought to have been fixed immediately but was neglected and now it is a huge disaster and is going to cause billions of naira to fix”, he noted.
The Governor explained “Nigeria has laws that are observed only in breach. It is not for us to lament the breach of the past but to put an end to it. We must ensure that environmental laws are enforced strictly and steps are taken to make the that violation will attract sanction”
He argued “if we don’t protect the environment we cannot have sustainable development. We must do our part as individuals and community, as non-governmental organizations, Federal and State agencies on the issue of environment. We must be united and we must create sufficient time to deal with issues and articulate medium and long term strategies”.
Oshiomhole disclosed that Edo State has done a couple of things to protect the environment and deal with people who are looking at short economic gains without looking at the long term consequences.
“We live in one world and everybody must be encouraged regardless of your level of development to pay attention to the environment”, he added.
Earlier the Director General/Chief Executive Officer, Dr Ngeri Gbenebo commended the Governor for his development strides in the state.
According to her, “the opening of roads to the hinterland is a case in point. This has boosted the economy of the state.”
She disclosed, that the agency plans to set up an office in the state which will have a hundred percent junior staff and twenty five percent senior staff and solicited for office accommodation.
