Abia: 4500 houses inspected against communicable disease

No fewer than 4,500 premises across 85 communities in Abia State have been visited so far by environmental health officers inspection officers following the introduction of sanitation exercise by the State Government meant to curb the spread of contagious diseases such as cholera, dysentery and other relevant diseases.

This progress followed the re-introduction and re-launch of sanitary inspection services across the 17 local government areas of the State in August, 2025 by Governor Alex Otti.

Okey Kanu, Commissioner for Information, made this known at Government House Umuahia, while briefing the press on the outcome of the State Executive Council meeting chaired by Governor Alex Otti.

“In line with the administration’s ‘Keep Abia Clean Initiative’, and the vision of His Excellency Dr. Alex Otti , to make Abia State the cleanest state in the country, the state government reintroduced sanitary inspection services.

“Since the reintroduction of sanitary inspection services, the inspectors have been making progress. So far, they’ve visited about 4,500 premises, cutting across 85 communities in the state,”Kanu stated.

The Commissioner, however, cautioned the sanitary inspectors against using their positions or offices as an avenue to extort money from the citizens, but he insisted on the payment of established environmental default fines.

The Commissioner stated that following the State Government’s decision to go green, the Abia State Executive Council had approved the statewide tree planting campaign.

He highlighted the importance of tree planting to include, improvement on the climatic conditions in the State, reduction of erosion, reduction in flooding costs, positioning of the State as a modern and sustainable State, among others.

Kanu, who noted that the State is working round the clock in several parts of Aba and Umuahia to ensure that blocked drains are free from flooding, said following NIMET’s early warning flood alert, Government is calling on Abians to continue to keep the drains free from being blocked.