Ogun govt seals off company over environmental pollution

The Ogun State Government has shut down a company known as Maths Metal Recycling Limited in Sagamu for environmental pollution.

The company was shut down for engaging in industrial pollution after it deliberately released contaminated oil into its immediate environment.

Commissioner for Environment Ola Oresanya said on Sunday that the state government had no option other than to shut down the recycling company because it refused to heed several warnings, “thereby causing grievous harm to people living in its immediate environment.”

Oresanya maintained that the recycling company had “deliberately punctured holes at the back of its premises to discharge contaminated oil into its immediate environment instead of installing retention tanks within its premises where the bad oil and other solvents are supposed to be treated.”

According to him, the management of Maths Metal not only caused pollution but also committed a criminal act punishable under the Ogun State environmental sanitation laws.

This, he said, was because the company’s deliberate action adversely affected residents living around them.

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“The state government will now have to establish the extent of damage done to the well-being of members of the community, especially the percolation of the contaminated oil into their underground water,” he added.

According to him, the Ogun State Government would, after a strict assessment, determine whether any remediation could be done, which the recycling company would be made to pay for, while other corrective actions may be considered.