The Borno Government on Saturday began massive clearing and fumigation of Bama town recently liberated by the military to prepare ground for the return of the people.
Alhaji Nasiru Surundi, Sole Administrator of the Borno Environmental Protection Agency (BOSEPA), who launched the exercise in Bama, said it was to ensure the early return of the people back home.
“We are here with 1,000 personnel to clear the entire town of refuse and other rubbish ahead of the peoples’ return.
“We also came with 15 trucks of different capacity to facilitate our work, ” Surundi said.
He said that BOSEPA had earlier deployed 40 environment staff to commence the cleaning before the eventual launching.
“Already we have 40 Environment Staff that had started the exercise before our arrival.
” We are also trying to reinforce our workers with additional manpower to fast-track the pace of work, ” he said.
“We are also fumigating the town to take care of reptiles, especially snakes and rodents that might be hidden inside people homes after been abandoned for several months.
“We have a spray machine with high capacity to fumigate areas in a short while, we also have large stock of concentrated chemicals for the job,“he said.
Surundi said that BOSEPA was also spraying another sets of chemicals that would prevent disease outbreaks after the return of the people.
He commended the workers for their zeal in carrying out the cleaning.
According to him, in the next two weeks we will have achieved our dream of cleaning and clearing the town of unwanted things.
“God willing we will not encounter landmines or any dangerous items during the clearing.
“We have submitted ourselves to God by carrying out prayers before we started, we are determine to work and nothing will happen to us ” Surundi said.
Bama, one of the worst hit towns by the Boko Haram insurgency was liberated last year by the military after been occupied for several months by the insurgents. (NAN)