Governor ‘Seyi Makinde of Oyo State has issued a directive for the removal of shanties and commercial centers built around public schools in the state within seven days.
The governor gave the directive Tuesday, during a series of midnight inspections conducted across public schools in Ibadan, the Oyo State capital.
Makinde expressed concern about the presence of these shanties surrounding schools in the state, saying such encroachments do not align with the state’s image and its education system’s standards.
He said: “The entrance is almost blocked by people who have their shops very close to the entrance of the school, which is not conducive for learning.
“So, we have gone round and what we are saying is that if you have anything attached to the fence of a school, you must remove it.
“We are going to give them about a week to remove those things. They should clear them so that when our children come back to school, we will know they are coming into an environment conducive to learning.
“Also, we have taken the opportunity to look at the situation with solid waste management. You can see most medians have become dumpsites but this has to stop.
“Where we have single carriage roads, you don’t see people dump their waste by the roadside. How come they have made the medians the dumpster?
“So, we will, again, go back to the drawing board because something is not obviously working with the architecture that we have in place.
In the same vein, the governor reassured residents that the prevalent practice of indiscriminate waste disposal along roadways would soon become a thing of the past, adding that plans are underway to overhaul the state’s waste management system.
We are working to look into what has to be done next to have the kind of environment that we really want to be proud of,” Makinde said.
The governor was in company of the Commissioner for Information and Orientation, Prince Dotun Oyelade; his counterpart in the Ministry of Environment, Mr. Abdulmojeed Mogbonjubola; and the Commissioner for Justice and Attorney-General of Oyo State, Barr. Abiodun Aikomo.
