C'River Environment Commissioner Seals- off Business Premises, Shops at Esuk Utan, Calabar for Non Compliance
Hannah ARIKPO
The Cross River state Commissioner of Environment, Hon Moses Osogi has ordered the closure of some shops and business premises at the Esuk Utan community in Calabar Municipality for non-compliance to sanitation laws.
Osogi who led the state Sanitation Monitoring team to supervise the March 2025 monthly sanitation ransacked brothels and the Zenith reach Enterprise hotel in the area to fish out occupants to participate in the monthly exercise and also arrested defaulters.
He Summoned Shop owners and Landlords to his office for operating in dirty, filthy unhygienic, substandard conditions and gave the defaulters forty-eivht hours to clean up their premises to avoid more arrest.
The Commissioner assured the sealed shop owners that their shops will only be opened after desilting gutters around them and cleaning up their environment
warning that anyone who attempts to open the shop will be prosecuted.
Answering reporters questions Osogi stated, "Cross Riverians need to imbibe the culture of maintaining a clean environment as a way of complimenting the good gestures of the state Governor, Apostle Dr. Edet Bassey Otu who just bagged an award of Best Governor in Nigeria for passionately pursuing people oriented policies.We need to support him and appreciate him in our little way by keeping our environment very clean by desilting our gutters, cut grasses, trim tress and clean up everywhere.
At Malabor Unical, he advised students at the campus to inculcate the spirit of cleanliness, "being a student does not mean you cannot keep your environment tidy, Malabor is inside Cross River state in the University of Calabar".
Chairman Sanitation Esuk Utan Community, Edu Ajayi Samuel said, he had sent notification to the traders, shop owners, Landlords and commercial sex workers as well as criminal hideouts to turn up for the sanitation exercise, and lamented the nonchalant attitude of the people towards maintaining a clean environment.
Over one hundred and fifty Sanitation defaulters were arraigned before the sanitation mobile court mounted at the Mobile/MCC junction, Calabar, as the exercise was supervised in the Municipality and Calabar South LGA.
