Delta State Commissioner of Environment Chief Frank Omare was the guest at the maiden edition of the ‘Searchlight on the State of the State’ hosted by the Warri Correspondent Chapel of the Nigerian Union of Journalists (NUJ). He fielded questions from reporters. BOLAJI OGUNDELE was there.
What alternative places have you made for those displaced (during the demolition exercise) considering the economic hardship and what are you doing about some of your men alleged to be collecting bribes?
We cannot allow people to continue to block government roads because they are poor, because they don’t have the means to have shops. If we do, they will just take over the whole place.
Abroad, we have open market on Sundays, we are not against that. But the culture of continuing to block our roads, we should discourage it in its entirety. Who is a poor man? We have provided markets, let them go into those markets and start trading. As soon as you enter Sapele, there is a market, but half of the market is a dump site, another half is abandoned.
The issue of bribe, he who alleges must prove. Why did you give bribe? It is because you are doing something wrong. If one is giving bribe, we have the social media, you can snap us, as we are taking the bribe. We are going to comb round again before the structures will take over. So, when you are building a block store where we have removed a caravan, you will tell us who gave you that approval. We mustn’t promote sentiment. Government policies and ideologies are always minority ideologies. Let us know that what government has put in place on the long run is the majority ideology.
Delta State Forest Reserve has been encroached by a lot of them. What the ministry wants to do by next week we are using the media to inform that all those forest reserves that have been encroached upon by Deltans and non-Deltans should be evacuated immediately. If you go to Sapele Forest reserve, it is as if government does not own a land there. Why should you be building on government property? If you go to Agbor, Asaba, it’s all over and I cannot fold my hands. I will take the bullets on behalf of you; Deltans and the government of Delta State. Government must make a decision and government must take a position.
Garbage removed from the gutters is beginning to litter the main roads, defacing Warri, what are you going to do about it?
Government is not a charity organisation, you generate waste, you dump them in front of your gutters and you are asked to evacuate them. You should be punished for doing that. Thank God the governor of Delta state has taken the bold step in the area of environment.
Some of the affected victims of the 2012 flooding have complained that they have not been given anything. Is this correct and what is the Delta state government doing in respect of the recent flood predicted for the Niger Delta Region?
We have swamp boogies in the Delta South and Central Area, opening channels to major rivers. That is why after one hour of heavy rainfall, you see that all areas are flowing. That is one serious area the state government has been working on in the past three years.
Secondly, if the money doesn’t get to you as the community leader, you will claim that nothing has happened, it is not charity money. I know the Chairman of the committee, Rtd Justice Tabai and I can vouch that they have done a thorough job and have reported to the government of Delta state. I am sure and I am happy that my governor did not touch the money. He set up a committee and released the money to the committee.
We understand that one particular ethnic group is more affected in the demolition of the royal cemetery. Is that true?
I don’t know which ethnic group. I am an Ijaw man, I am not commissioner of Ijaw ethnic nationality, I am a Commissioner of Delta State and I am given an assignment of the Delta state government, so it can affect any ethnic group or the Nigerian society. The most important question is if what Omare-led team has done is against the law. If it is not then what is the issue? As a matter of government policy, my recommendation after the task work is that those people who have laboured government and used taxpayers’ resources be arrested and prosecuted.
Uvwie market has become a recurring decimal, what are you going to do about it? The Jigbale market still remains and caravans are still around, can Warri be clean?
The attitude of the people has propelled me to do what I should do. You are aware that overtime I have gone to the Uvwie market, if you want a financial quantification of what government has put in to clean that place, it is enough to build this house, and there will be change. But what has happened, the people are adamant. They say, ‘this is our culture, our tradition’, and thank God the paramount ruler of Uvwie and other prominent people of Uvwie have condemned their actions.
There is what we call the helicopter factor; when there is problem and you have tried all you can and it keeps returning. When twenty women, claiming poverty as excuse, will be matched to the Okere High College (Okere Prisons), they will know that government is serious, but that is what government is trying to avoid.
Please, I want you to educate and tell them, so that tomorrow, they won’t ask me, ‘did you tell them’? They should stop embarrassing the people of Uvwie. Uvwie people are clean people. I have been there on market days, when they see me, they behave, but when I’m not there, they come out. Jigbale market and caravans, we are coming.
Is the task force only for demolition of illegal structures and street trading? In some places, we see traders using umbrellas, what are you doing about it?
The position of the task force is not for only illegal structures, we cart away waste. It is sad that people are just wicked to the government. Ask this, the efforts of Omare and his team, are they not enough for people to behave well? We are putting structures in place, even though it is slow.
Some persons have admitted to doing wrong against the environment.
