In a bid to forestall any outbreak of Lassa fever in the state, the Ekiti State Government has gone hard on violators of sanitation laws.
As a result, 23 persons were convicted and sentenced to jail terms ranging from one to three months imprisonment.
They were found guilty of dumping refuse in unauthorized places, refusing to participate in last Saturday’s sanitation exercise, obstructing sanitation officers from performing their duties and flouting other sanitation laws.
The Presiding Magistrate, Modupe Afeniforo, who handed down the jail sentences to the 23 offenders in Ado-Ekiti on Saturday, however, gave the convicted persons options of fines ranging from N1, 000 to N2, 000.
This state has also reconstituted the Emergency Outbreak Centre (EOC), which was put in place in the wake of the national outbreak of the hemorrhagic fever in January.
The government said the centre had been reactivated and placed on high alert in view of the recent development.
The Commissioner for Health, Olurotimi Ojo, who made this known in Ado-Ekiti during a meeting with stakeholders in the health sector, said state government organized the forum with stakeholders to harmonize plans on how to improve surveillance, infection and prevention and control at the various health facilities in the state.
He said the steps were proactive to ensure fresh outbreak of Lassa Fever which reportedly claimed the life of a medical doctor in Asaba, Delta State, did not spread to Ekiti.