RIWAMA Speaks On Suspected Lifeless Bodies On PH Road

Edith CHUKU

The acting Sole Administrator of the Rivers State Waste Management Agency RIWAMA, Mr. Prince Ohia, has described as untrue, the claim that lifeless female bodies were found in bags, around OPM Junction, in Iwofe Road, Port Harcourt.

Ohia gave this description while vehemently debunking the assertions making rounds on social media that the Department of Environmental Health Sanitation identified lifeless female bodies found in bags and that some of their body parts were missing.

In an exclusive interview with TNN on Thursday, the RIWAMA boss urged those circulating the said rumour on social media to desist forthwith, insisting that it was not true.

His words, “It is funny and untrue. Good a thing I went for the inspection myself.

“Yesterday, I got a distress call that there were some lifeless bodies, the same story that is going round the clock; that there were lifeless bodies bagged and dumped along Iwofe Road. I mobilised my team, it’s there in the Media, the pictures and videos are there as evidence. We inspected and discovered that they were not lifeless bodies, they were rather the intestines of birds, that were bagged and dumped.”

Ohia added that “We deployed our intelligence and we discovered that those intestines of birds were dumped by a company along Elder Marcus Street off the same Iwofe Road, they buy birds in bulk and process them and then resale.

“When we discovered that, we arrested the people, brought them to the office and we had very elaborate discussions and they confessed to the act and the agency in conjunction with G-Processing carried out the evacuation of those waste of intestines of birds and then we did total fumigation in the area, including odour control.

“We took off those intestines of birds down to our dump site to bury because they are decomposables and they can turned to manure.

“It is not true that any human body was found along Iwofe Road, they are not human bodies, they were intestines of birds. I am saying this from the point of strength of knowledge because I went there myself.”

On actions taken against the company for indiscriminate disposal, he assured that, “the process is ongoing. We had meeting yesterday like I said, we arrested some of their staff, we had meetings yesterday, we are having another meeting by 3 o’clock today because there are alot of rules and standards that we need to set for the company, they must obey.”

Ohia further charged residents of the state against indiscriminate dump.

He warned that, “whatever you dump indiscriminately comes back to you as a disease so everybody should be mindful of not just dumping indiscriminately but dumping at the right time.

“The right time for dumping is in-between 6PM and 10PM, so that the service providers can evacuate this waste to our dump site, anything other than 6PM to 10PM can never be condoned by us.

“Again, we have where we call receptacle, receptacles are the only places where you are supposed to drop your refuge, dumping on the median of dumping outside the receptacles is against the law and if we catch you, definitely the full weight of the law will be against you.

“To the residence of Port Harcourt, especially those staying in, along Iwofe, they should go along doing their businesses because what we saw and met there wasn’t any human parts, it was intestines of birds and we have evacuated it, we have fumigated the place and the place is safe for every human being to move and do business.”