In order to keep abreast of dos and don’ts, the Onitsha Unit Coordinator of Operation Clean and Healthy Anambra (Ocha Brigade), Mr. Ejike Odife has underscored the importance of regular parade and lecturing men of Ocha Brigade.

Mr. Odife who is in charge of Borromeo Round About, Upper Iweka to Niger Bridge, Ogbaru local government area and Owerri Onitsha Road made the disclosure shortly after weekly parade and lectures conducted by his unit.

He, therefore, noted that as agency responsible for clamping down the defaulters of various environmental laws, it is imperative that staff of Ocha Brigade mostly field workers should be updated on the dos and don’ts.

He said, ” We chooses to do parade every Monday Sit-at-Home so that everyone will be chanced to participate. We organize lectures after parade. The reasons of conducting parade and lectures is to educate our men that clamping down defaulters of open defecation, dumping of wastes inside gutters, street trading amongst other are not criminal offences.”

” They are civil matters, though some countries have made it criminal offence but, Anambra and Nigeria in general have not made it criminal offence. So, our men would be lectured on how to handle human beings because you can not matreat someone simply because he defecated urine, dumped waste inside gutters or he didn’t evacuate waste bim. So, during the lectures all our staff will be well informed on how to handle these offences”

He further explained that Ocha Brigade do not recruit staff anyhow, attributing it to the reason why Ocha Brigade staff are scanty on the main road.

” We recruit our staff based on experience, education and character. At least average Ocha Brigade staff should know how to read and write because there are situation which warrants a staff to go and serve paper to someone”

” When we want to recruit staff, we collect names and send them to those responsible for recruiting ad-hoc staff at our head quarters from there, they selected ones will be subjected to one to two weeks intensive training depending on the individuals because those who had experience in any para- military organization  are not expected to spend more than one to two weeks for the training. But, for those who don’t have experience, they will be in the training for one month so that they would taught well on how to handle human beings”

The coordinator equally said that Ocha Brigade can not recruit any  drunkard or a person who smoke Methamphetamine (Mkpuru-miri), saying that they have equipment to test someone who is a drunkard.

” A person who is a drunkard is insane. We direct such a person to psychiatric Hospital, if it is a person who takes illicit drugs, we hand him over to NDLEA. Since we apprehend drug peddlers and drug addicts, there is no point of recruiting such categories of people. We also have disciplinary Unit where we discipline our staff. Just like our Managing Director Chief, Celestine Anere, he is no nonsense man. If the MD give you instruction to do something, if you fail to do it, you will be disciplined. There are other offences which attract various penalties. If a staff is found compromised while on duty, this offence attracts dismissal, suspension or even dismissal after suspension” 

” So, our MD don’t tolerate illegality, if any staff defaults, the person will be arrested and detained, there is offence that attracts court action against our staff just like the way we do to other people, we do it to  ourselves in order to restore sanity and discipline within the agency. Therefore, Ocha Brigade is not agency someone will misbehave and go Scot-free. So, I say bravo to my MD, Chief Anere in uplifting the integrity of Ocha Brigade” Odife concluded.