By Caleb Jacob
Some residents of Kano along the Zoo Road axis have raised the alarm over the alleged destruction of drainage slabs and the eventual looting of the slabs’ rods by some ad-hoc workers engaged by the state government to clear drainage in the area.
The state government, through the Ministry of Environment, is currently carrying out its annual drainage clearing exercise within Kano metropolis, engaging youths from the affected communities.
One of the residents, Abdul Aminu, told Grassroots Parrot how the ad-hoc workers, who had the sole responsibility of clearing the gutter, were destroying some of the slabs and extracting their rods.
Aminu said the ugly trend, which began on Tuesday unhindered, also continued on Wednesday morning.
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“I saw them yesterday pushing some of the slabs inside the gutter and breaking them to remove the rods inside the slabs. They will later pack the debris from the slabs together with the refuse they are clearing from the gutter.”
Aminu said he approached the workers on Wednesday morning after noticing that another slab had been vandalized inside the same gutter.
“They continued like that again this morning (Wednesday). We later discovered that some slabs used to cover the gutter before are now missing just because they want to sell the rods.” He said.
He urged the government to strengthen their monitoring team as he alleged that other the ad-hoc workers are still destroying some slabs at another location close to a Total Filling Station in the area.
Our correspondent visited the scene and spoke with the men on the site, who confirmed that they were employed by the Ministry of Environment.
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However, some technical staff of the ministry who were at the site during the visit did not dispute the allegation. They said the allegation may be true considering the caliber of youths engaged for the task.
They said the ad hoc workers were cautioned on possible litigation should properties be destroyed in the course of their duties.
When contacted, the Director of Public Enlightenment at the Ministry of Environment and Climate Change, Ismail Garba Gwammaja, denied that the act was deliberate.
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Gwammaja said that the slabs may have been broken in the process of removing them for easy clearance.
He, however, admitted that the ad-hoc staff, who were mostly idle youths engaged for the exercise, could not be controlled 100 percent.
According to him, the workers were not authorized to carry out such vandalization , hence assuring that the ministry will replace all broken slabs and increase monitoring to prevent such incident.