Open defecation: Oyo govt to reprimands offenders

The Oyo State Government on Thursday said it has started reorientation campaigns with the erection of warning billboards on open defecation in strategic locations to end open defecation in the state by 2028.

Commissioner for Information and Orientation, Mr Dotun Oyelade, at the workshop organised by UNICEF in collaboration with the Oyo Ministry of Information and Orientation said that anyone who goes against the law would be reprimanded.

The workshop theme is: “Eliminating Open Defecation in Southwest States Nigeria.”

Oyelade said the state government had launched media sensitisation and general campaigns against open defecation in the state.

The Commissioner said the state Ministry of Justice had been mandated to ensure the prosecution of perpetrators of open defecation in the state.

“We have started reorientation campaigns with the erection of warning billboards on open defecation in strategic locations in the state.

“After the necessary campaigns, anyone who does not obey the law will be reprimanded.

“The state government is working assiduously to ensure open defecation is reduced drastically by 2028.

“It is very sad that Nigeria had been identified in the whole world as the worst place where open defecation takes place.

“We are happy and encouraged by what UNICEF is doing in collaboration with states to discourage open defecation,” he said.

Also, Mrs Titilayo Obayemi, the Director of the state’s Rural Water Supply and Sanitation Agency (RUWASSA), said the state government had in 2022 launched a road map on open defecation.

Obayemi said the road map would enable the state to plan how the 33 local government areas in the state would be open defecation-free by the year 2028.

She said the practice of open defecation in the state was worrisome, and the government was doing everything possible to meet its target of an open defecation-free society by 2028.