The Federal Government on Thursday said it sealed 269 facilities for violating environmental regulations and conducted environmental compliance monitoring on more than 8,122 corporate facilities between 2012 and 2022.
The Director-General, National Environmental Standards and Regulations Enforcement Agency (NESREA), Prof. Aliyu Jauro, disclosed this in Abuja, while briefing newsmen on the National Environmental Compliance Award (NECA).
Jauro said that the NECA, which would be organised by the agency, is scheduled for Dec. 6, 2022.
“Between 2012 and 2022, the agency conducted environmental compliance monitoring as provided for in the national regulations to more than 8,122 corporate facilities.
“The NESREA has carried out numerous compliance monitoring and enforcement exercises across the 36 states of the country, with many facilities being sealed for violating the provisions of environmental laws.
“The agency, in the course of carrying out its mandates, observed that some facilities were assiduously working hard to comply with the regulations on environment.
“These facilities to some significant extent have succeeded in promoting best practices and adopting sustainability in their operations,” he said.
The director-general said that the agency has developed and gazetted 35 environmental regulations across the different sectors of the economy since its inception.
He said that the regulations have served as a benchmark for the compliance monitoring activities of the agency.
He said that the agency was not quick to sanction facilities, rather it ensured that it issues notices of compliance concerns, and abatement notices after compliance monitoring visits to the facilities.
“It is only when these facilities refuse to comply with the provisions of the notification of compliance concerns and after numerous visits that the agency goes ahead to sanction them.
“The agency encourages voluntary compliance, hence, the very rigorous steps it takes before any facility is sanctioned for non–compliance,’’ he noted.
