Court Sentences Landlords to Community Service, Orders Tenants to Vacate House over Oozing Toilet

An Ibadan Chief Magistrate Court  has ordered the closure of a house at Ago Igbira, Olugbode Odo Ona, Ibadan  giving  the tenants if the house till Sunday to pack their loads out of the house. 

The Chief Magistrate Mr. Olamide Hamzat gave the order when the Landlord of the house appeared before him on the three counts charge bothering on failure to ensure clean environment. 

The Magistrate also sentenced the Landlord Mr. Sanni Mathew to two weeks community service with option of twenty thousand naira fine for his failure to maintain hygienic environment. 

The environmental officer who prosecuted the suspect, Mr. Olugbenga Ajayi said they had been going to the house of Mr. Sanni Mathew since last year with various warning and all attempts to see him failed as he had always been avoiding the officer, and that tenants in the house even threatened to beat the officers.

He told the court that the suspects refused to repair the filled up soak- away in his house there by allowing stench from oozing human excreta, which said could cause pandemic in the area. 

Mr. Sanni Mathew, who said he inherited the house from his father, agreed that the toilet was filled up, saying he only came to Ibadan because of the case.

The Chief Magistrate gave the tenants till Sunday to pack out of the house and the house be sealed until when the toilet was tidied.

Another landlord in the area, Mr. Abimbola Odukoya was also sentenced to two weeks community with option fifteen thousand naira fine for violating environment laws of Oyo State.. 

Mr. Odukoya of Abimbola Street, Odo Ona Ibadan was alleged to have failed to repair the filled up soak-away in his residence, thereby allowing stench from oozing human excreta in and around the neighborhood, which he said could lead to cholera epidemic, Lassa fever and other diseases..

Mr. Ajayi also told the court that the suspects ignored all warning sent to them to ensure clean environment, pointing out their environment was filled with refuse.

During the hearing, the prosecutor tendered four photographs taken from the house of Mr. Abimbola Odukoya, which showed a damaged toilet concretes, damaged pipes and gutter with faeces.

Mr. Odukoya, who pleaded not guilty, agreed that his soak-away had been filled up and blocked, but denied any littering faeces in his gutter.

He said his wife as a result of the threat of the environmental health office shut the house, saying he had repaired all the faulty pipes and soak-away.

He also blamed his tenants for the dirty environment.

The Chief Magistrate, Mr. Olamide Hamzat fined Mr. Abimbola fifteen thousand naira or option of two weeks community service within the Secretariat of Ibadan Southwest Local Government.. 

He also ordered the environmental health officers to visit the house again to verify his claim that he had repaired the damaged facilities, failure of which he said the man should be ready to be arraigned latest before the end of August

Sunday Ogunyemi