LaDMA puts twenty before court
The Municipal Chief Executive of the La Dadekotopon Municipal Assembly (LaDMA), Ms Rita Odoley Sowah, has pushed for the establishment of a law that would impose a sentence of community service on people who are found guilty of offences such as defecating in the open and dumping refuse at unauthorised places.
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She made the recommendation when 20 persons were arraigned at the La Motor and Sanitation Court by Environmental Health Officers of LaDMA with the support of the police in La.
The offenders had defecated openly in various locations within the La Municipality. They were caught during a dawn swoop. Two other persons were also arrested for obstructing the work of the arresting officers.
According to the prosecutor, Mr Paul Agbagba, the assembly decided to arrest people found degrading the environment, especially with regard to the cholera outbreak in the country last year in which the La Municipality was mentioned as one of the areas with very high number of fatalities.
He said during one such swoop at dawn by a combination of staff from the assembly and the police, the 20 people were caught defecating openly and dumping refuse indiscriminately. Among those arrested, he said, were two members of staff of the La Dadekotopon Municipal Assembly
The accused persons who all pleaded guilty to the charge brought against them and the two other persons who were arrested for dissent were each fined GH¢180.
According to the La Municipal Chief Executive, the fine alone was not enough deterrent to prevent people from committing the same offence.
While she admitted that the fine was a good thing, she believed making offenders undertake community service in addition to the fine would have the desired effect of discouraging people from abusing the environment.
Ms Sowah noted that when offenders were made to sweep and clean up the places they defiled, they would make sure nobody dumped refuse or defecated there.
She has, under the circumstances, urged the Local Government Ministry and the government to institute a law that would empower metropolitan, municipal and district assemblies to impose community service sentence in addition to fines on perpetrators of environmental offences.