Fifty-nine defaulters were on Saturday, arrested in various parts of Umuahia and brought to the Abia State Environmental Court for contravening Abia State government’s basic environmental laws.

They were picked by task force officials and brought to the Umuahia High Court and arraigned before Margistrate Onyinyechi Ibekwe.

While some of the defaulters were picked on the road loitering, others were arrested at the business premises where they were trading, in defiance of the state government’s warnings.

Speaking to journalists after the exercise, Abia State Commissioner for Environment, Philemon Ogbonna who was represented by Rev. Udechukwu Ukachukwu, the Director in charge of the Ministry of Environment, expressed satisfaction with the level of compliance among residents but regretted that some residents still went about playing football in the streets during the 7 am to 10 am environmental sanitation hours.

Also speaking, the chairman of the Abia State House of Assembly Committee on Environment, Kalu Mba Nwoke, said that policemen in September were involved in extortion of environmental offenders and diversion of arrested defaulters.

He, however, said that the extortion and diversion of defaulters by the police were not reported in the October edition of the clean up exercise and Commended the Abia State Police Command for the development.

“The meeting the Commissioner had with them yielded the result. We say kudos to the Nigerian Police. They have even promised us that by next month they will deploy their men for the exercise to succeed.”

During the exercise, some illegal waste dumps and culverts were discovered in World Bank Housing Estate.