Landlord sentenced five months imprisonment for failure to provide toilet, kitchen.

An Ikole Magistrate’s Court on Tuesday locked up a residential building at Odo Ayedun, Ekiti, over landlord’s failing to provide toilet facilities and other essentials in his house. The court sealed the house following an application by Mr Tunde Famuyisan, an Environmental Health Officers in Ikole Local Government, that the house was unfit for human habitation. The landlord, Omoniyi Ajayi, was arraigned in the court on Aug. 25, for alleged failure to provide toilet facilities and other house essentials.

The Magistrate, Mrs A.S Okunbule, had in her judgment on Sept. 3, sentenced the accused to five months imprisonment with an option of N5,500 fine, which the convict paid. The convict was also directed to make his house habitable by making provision for toilet, Kitchen and other facilities. However, the prosecuting officer on Tuesday told the court that the landlord had not complied with the directive.

Famuyisan then sought for an order to seal the house, saying that the compound was littered with human faeces and there was urgent need to curb the spread of disease in the area. Okungbule, in a ruling, ordered the closure of the house, saying that the order would remain enforced until the court reverse it. Meanwhile, Mr Taye Olowolafe, the President of Environmental Health Officers Association of Nigeria (EHOAN) in Ekiti, has admonished landlords across the state to imbibe good sanitary condition.

Olowolafe said the fight against outbreak of cholera and other diseases associated with poor sanitary condition should be a collective responsibility between the general public and environmental health officers. He, therefore, urged the people to prioritise oral hygiene in their daily activities, clear refuse and filth out of their environment.

He called on landlords to make provision for toilets in order to curb indiscriminate open defecation. He said that the closure of the house would serve as deterrent to other erring landlords, saying that the office would continue to prosecute erring landlords.

Vanguard.

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