Monarch Docked Over Sanitation Offences

The Aba South Local Government Environmental Health Office on Thursday arraigned a monarch, Chinasa Ijeh of Amatu Autonomous Community, for alleged environmental offences.
Ijeh was arraigned at the Customary Court in Aba on five-count charges of alleged failure to keep his compound clean, among others.
The other offences are; failure to renew his house’s certificate of fitness, channel sewage content appropriately, repair septic tank and obtain excavation permit.
Prosecutor Prince McAnthony said the offences contravened Rule 82 Paragraph V and Rule 83 of the Public Health Laws CAP 139, Laws of Abia State.
The accused would be sentenced to one month imprisonment or an option of N5000 or N10,000 if found guilty. Ijeh pleaded not guilty to the charge.
He told the court that when the health officer came to his house, “I showed him every certificate he requested for.
“Having seen all, he went further to ask me to give him N5000 for his superior officer at their office. “But I asked him why I should do that and he said that it was to save me from being arraigned in court, he said.
Meanwhile, An Aba-na-Ohazu Customary Court in Abia  on Thursday, summarily sentenced Maduabuchi Ogbonna to three months imprisonment for contempt of court
The Senior Magistrate, Dr Diamond Olewengwa, said the sentenced was with hard labour and without an option of fine.
Olewengwa said that the Maduabuchi would remain in prison custody until he purged himself of the contempt.
Prosecutor Egor Iwelu told the court that on June 24, Maduabuchi trespassed through the court premises when the court was in session.
Iwelu said the accused fought the policeman on duty at the court premises who asked him to retrace his steps.
He said that the accused also threatened to kill two other court bailiffs who went to the scene to persuade him to stop. According to him, the accused also resisted police arrest and constituted himself into a nuisance.
The prosecutor said the offence contravened Section 133, CAP 139, Laws of Abia State.
No plea was entered for the accused before the sentence.
The case was adjourned to September 25, to know if he had purged himself from the contempt.