Ten residents in Ablekuma North who failed to take up in a clean -up exercise last Saturday have been summoned to appear in court this week.
The Ablekuma North Municipal Assembly served notices for all individuals to get involved in the clean -up exercise, which was slated for Saturday, 13th September, 2025.
A notice sighted by 3news.com directed all shop owners and offices not to open their premises for businesses until the exercise was over. However, some recalcitrant residents and shop owners went ahead to open their businesses and refused to participate in the one-day exercise.
This compelled the taskforce led by the Ablekuma North Environmental Department to serve the respective individuals with summons to appear before the court.
Ruby Enyram Banini, the Environmental Officer for Ablekuma North Municipality said, “In the first place, this clean up exercise is supposed to be a way to help people. It rests on the shoulders of residents because we live in an environment that is supposed to be cleaned so we expect that the cleanup exercise should be sustained by the community”.
“When we came here, all those who participated in the campaign, their names have been written. For those who did not participate at all, within the week, we’ll come back and serve the notices of non-compliance, because we’ve made announcements; we’ve issued letters to inform the public that they must participate.
And this national sanitation day clean up exercises is very important for all of us as community. We should not look at it as politics. If you noticed, some people are even fighting us for forcing them to come out. We are going to summon all these people to appear before the court,” she said.
The Ablekuma North Municipal Chief Executive (MCE), Adamu Musa Kalamu who led the exercise by participating in it from dawn to midday, further noted that the Assembly is enforcing the by-laws on “operation clean up your frontage”.
The assembly members, municipal coordinating director, and identifiable groups including the Community Police Assistants participated in the clean- up exercise.
Mr. Kalamu said the activity was to promote a cleaner environment and address sanitation issues in the municipality.
“This is a normal routine in the municipality since I took office. I think this is my eighth clean-up exercise, aside the monthly one that we organized.
We are targeting the main road, and the residents are also within. We are also enforcing the operation clean-up your frontage. It is a by-law that I have taken upon myself to make sure that this time we are able to operationalize it. And so far, the response I’m getting on the ground is very positive.
Confirming the summoning of 10 individuals Mr. Kalamu said, “If you open your shop, they issue you with summons and pen down your name and then the necessary action is taken against you. So far, we have issued summons to ten (10) people, and they will have to refer you to the office to explain why action should not be taken against you”.
