Landlord Bags Five Months Imprisonment For Failure To Provide Toilet, Kitchen Facilities

An Ikole Magistrate’s Court on Tuesday sealed a residential
building at Odo Ayedun, Ekiti, over landlord’s failure 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.