NESREA seals four facilities in Jos over non-compliance with environmental requirements

 By Marie-Therese Nanlong

The National Environmental Standards and Regulations Enforcement Agency, NESREA has sealed buildings comprising a hotel, shopping malls, and another over noncompliance with environmental requirements.

The four buildings are in the Jos North and Jos South local government areas of Plateau State and are still undergoing construction. NESREA noted that despite the various letters sent for the right things to be done, the owners of the properties ignored the Agency and continued with the construction.

The NESREA’s Acting Director of North Central, Jude Appiah said the buildings which include, “Commercial Development Hotel constructed at Atiku Junction, Rayfied, Three Angels City Mall, opposite the Olusegun Obasanjo Model School, Yakubu Gowon Way, Eclipse Nigeria Ltd at Lamingo Road and Elzaks Design Shopping Mall at the Terminus area did not comply with their environmental requirements as stipulated.”

Assistant Chief Engineer, Abubakar Jibrin from the NESREA headquarters in Abuja who led the team on the enforcement exercise stated, “I am in Jos for the enforcement action that we have just done on a few facilities. They fell short of the requirements in the environmental documents that they were supposed to submit to our Agency.

“It is a continuous process, the ones we sealed today, we have visited them for the required number of visits, letters were issued to them giving them timelines which have expired and they have not come up with the required documents.

“They have to do the audit and submit the documents to our office, having gotten to this level, they will be sanctioned. They will pay fines. It is easier to obey the law, those that have been sealed, will pay fines and still do the audit, and the sealing will disrupt their work.

“Many Nigerians like disobeying the laws, these are laid down things that must be done to get certification based on the category of one’s facility.” 

However, at the four facilities visited, only a few labourers were found and they could not say where the owners of the buildings or the contractors and engineers were at the time of the visits.