AWKA – A group, Anambra People’s Assembly (APA) has asked Governor Chukwuma Soludo to as a matter of urgency place a ban on scavenging and sale of scraps in Anambra State.

In a statement released in Awka and signed by its leader, High Chief Tony Umeh the group said trade in scraps encourages crime and criminality among those involved in the trade.

It said those involved in the scrap trade have not in any way brought development to the State; rather they cause havoc, environmental degradation, crime and criminality.

“Because most of the iron used in culverts have been criminally removed or stolen for commercial purposes and about 95 percent of those engaged in scrap collections intrude into people’s private homes and steal their valuables and money, individual household materials, converting same as scraps to sell 
 to make money, without actually knowing the worth of what they were vandalizing.

“Majority of them are not even residents or have a stake in the development of the state,” it said.

“The Governor should ban them with immediate effect like Delta State did, and government should arrest people who go about vandalizing people’s property in the name of collecting scraps just like the Delta State government is doing”.

The A.P.A. called on the State Government to create dump sites where those who want to dispose of their waste materials should dump them.

It asked Governor Soludo to initiate an executive bill to the State House of Assembly to pass a law banning scraps collection in the State.

The law,  it said, should make it a criminal offense to engage in the collection of scraps popularly known as “iron condemn”.