The Nasarawa State government has threatened to close down any meat market found culpable of producing unwholesome and unhygienic products.

Yakubu Kwanta, the state’s Commissioner of Environment and Natural Resources issued the threat in an interview in Lafia, the state capital.

Mr Kwanta was responding to a question on what the state government was doing to stop the sale of polluted meat in some of the markets in the state, especially in the Karu local area.

A correspondent who covered one of the state’s monthly sanitation had observed that some meat sellers processed and sold the product close to huge dumpsites jam-packed with maggots.

He said a team would be sent to verify the claims and vowed to take necessary actions if genuine.

“We have our environmental laws, and we have the power to sanction, to close shops, and to ban.

“People cannot go about `selling disease’ in the name of meat. By the time we verify this claim and confirm that that environment is not meeting the required standard by existing law,’’ he said.

The commissioner urged the state’s people to live a healthy lifestyle by ensuring a clean, hygienic, and safe environment.

“By the time they make the environment habitable for themselves, they would be creating a safe environment, meaning protection for a safe future.

“A healthy environment guarantees the future of our people and the generations to come. So, I’ll call on all of them to embrace the hygiene protocol.

“That is why anyone found breaching the sanitation protocol will be apprehended and sanctioned.”

He recounted that a public toilet, which was in a bad state in Karu, was closed down during the last sanitation exercise he participated in.

“The last time I visited Karu and participated in environmental sanitation, we apprehended and closed down a public toilet that had constituted a health challenge in the area.

“I’m happy to announce to you that the public toilet operators have complied with the hygiene protocol and everybody in the area is happy now.

“So, this is the kind of progress we are making because the kind of enforcement that we’re practicing is robust,’’ he added. 

(NAN)