Ogun suspends three firms over lead poisoning

The Ogun State Government has suspended three environmental consultancy firms for negligence and culpability in the alleged acid battery pollution linked to the closed Used Lead Acid Battery recycling companies in the Ogijo area of the state.

The Commissioner for Environment, Ola Oresanya, disclosed this in a statement on Saturday, noting that the suspension was announced during a review meeting of the Process Audit of the closed companies held in Abeokuta, the state capital.

The affected firms are Vyne Nurt Limited, Core Environmental Services Limited, and Saag Chemicals Nigeria Limited.

According to Oresanya, the three firms attached to the ULAB companies were found culpable during the audit process, which confirmed that some pollution abatement devices they were required to install were not installed.

Review of the firms’ reports on the companies during the audit process showed that their submissions were deficient and failed to reflect the true situation to the state government. To have a clearer picture, we invited five consultancy firms involved and gave them the opportunity to defend their positions on the reporting gaps.

“Two of the environmental consultancy firms were able to offer explanations which, though not entirely satisfactory, earned them the opportunity to amend their practices, while the three suspended firms deliberately absented themselves from the review meeting, knowing fully well that they were complicit,” Oresanya said.

He stated that the state government had no choice but to suspend the firms from all environmental consultancy services in the state pending when they are able to clear their names of any form of complicity in the Process Audit of the closed ULAB companies.

The commissioner added that the Federal Ministry of Environment and the National Environmental Standards and Enforcement Agency had been notified of the decision to suspend the firms’ operations in the state until they exonerate themselves.

culled from punch.