The Gwagwalada Area Council in the FCT has warned landlords in the area to provide toilets in their houses or be ready to face prosecution ..

Alhaji Usman Yahaya, the Secretary of the council issued the warning in an interview with  correspondent  Gwagwalada last Thursday.

Yahaya said the warning became necessary as it had been observed that many people get infected with gastroenteritis at the inception of every rainy season due to the consumption of water.

The Tide learnt that some landlords in the council recently appeared before a Gwagwalada Magistrate Court over failure to comply with sanitation laws.

Yahaya said that the court summons were served on the landlords for failure to provide toilets for their households and deliberate blockage of drains.

He said that the summons served on the landlords and their consequent appearance before the court was a demonstration of the council’s commitment to issues bordering on sanitation.

“If you go round, you will discover that most of our drains have been blocked and 80 per cent of houses within this area are without toilets.

“We have been trying to educate the people on the need to maintain a healthy environment so as to avoid the outbreak of diseases.

“Since they are not ready to comply, the next option for us is to commence enforcement of sanitation laws and that is why so many of them are being served with court summons. “

Meanwhile the FCT has also condemned the spreading of clothes on balcony railings along highways, bridges, railings on landscaped sites, walkways and other public spaces in the capital territory.

“It noted that many public buildings, offices, bridges and residential buildings along major highways in the FCT as well as some private and government buildings, have been turned into drycleaner lines for spreading washed clothes along many highways and inner streets”, it said.

A statement from the area council also observed that, the fact was most noticeable in areas where there were concentrations of mechanic workshops as well as drainage alignments.

It advised the people of the Gwagwalada Area Council to spread their washed clothes within the confines of their homes.

The statement advised landlords who engaged private corporate security guards, who have also been found to be involved in the act, to henceforth desist from such.

It urged such landlords to enlighten and educate their tenants and their employees on the implications of this unaccepted act, stressing that the government would not hesitate to apply the full sanction of the state’s sanitation laws on such culprits.

“This Villages Culture’ does not only deface our environment, but also destroys the aesthetics and the green culture being promoted by government across the FCT.

“This retrogressive culture is archaic and should never be tolerated in any part of the FCT as the massive regeneration and ongoing transformation is to make Abuja model mega-city.

“The general public is hereby notified and warned that perpetrators of this uncivilised act will not only forfeit such clothes to the Motherless babies homes and Orphanages, but may also be prosecuted, in accordance’s with the state’s Sanitation Laws,” it added.