The residents of Ilorin have on Tuesday called on the state government to prevail on the Kwara State Waste Management Corporation (KWMC) through the Kwara State Environmental Protection Agency to as a matter of urgency remove refuse littering many roadsides across the state in order to ensure effective cleanness of the city.

Royal Times correspondent, who went round the city to inspect the level of cleanliness of the environment, reports that some areas such as Sango, Agbo-Oba,Taiwo road, Adifa (behind the palace), Sawmill, Ipata, Imilegbe among others were very dirty as refuse were abandoned in such areas.

A civil servant, Mr. Abiodun Adeolu, who spoke with our correspondent, lamented the failure of the environmental agency to evacuate the rubbish across the city for over a week, saying that the odour was capable of causing pandemic. He therefore appealed to the Ministry of Environment and Forestry to as a matter of urgency direct the KWMC to clear the menace.

Some shops owners, who spoke with our correspondent, also appealed to the agency charged with the responsibility of evacuating refuse to remove such refuse before it get out of hand, adding that the refuse has made it difficult for vehicles to have their ways which may eventually cause accident.

Speaking on the incident, the General Manager of Kwara State Environmental Protection Agency, Alhaji Abdulsalam Abdulsalam, said he will investigate the development and proffer a lasting solution, noting that the agency has commenced the distribution of waste bins to Government Reserve Areas (GRAs) and other segmented areas of the state which have been commercialized as another strategy to ensure cleanness.

However, a top officer of the agency who preferred anonymity, attributed the problem to lack of refuse dumping sites, saying that the people of Oko-Olowo, an area the agency use as a dumping site, have now refused to allow them use the site for the past one week. He added that the state government has recently approved Gbagede in Amoyo as a refuse site, which he said the usage has commenced.