The face-off between the Nigerian Environmental Standard and Regulation Enforcement Agency (NESREA) and the Nigerian Communication Commission(NCC) over the sealing of a telecom base station in Abuja is far from over.
Director In charge of Inspection And Enforcement, Mrs Oluronke Soyombo has vowed that the telecommunications company must pay five million naira sanction fee and penalty fee of fifty thousand naira daily for not paying as at when due .
Leading officials to the site to re-seal the base station, the NESREA official maintained that NESREA is not meddling in the affairs of the NCC vowing that it would continue to seal off the base station until the matter is properly resolved.
NESREA insists that the telecom company must comply with the environmental standards of 10-metre setback from residential areas. However at the site, Director of Inspection and Enforcement, Mrs Oluronke Soyombo denied any knowledge of who unsealed the facility and vowed that legal action will be taken against those who broke the seal.
“My concern is that I had put a seal here two weeks ago and it has been removed, and I am here to seal it off again”.
“We are going to charge them to court and it is in the court that they will tell us who unsealed what we had earlier sealed off”.
“I am here for my routine inspection and discovered that they have removed the seal we had put and I want to assure you that nobody came to asked us why we decided to do what we did”.
“I think they have erred and they must pay a N5 million fine; our lawyers have been contacted”.
“The Act that enacted NESREA has given us the responsibility to ensure a healthy and clean environment for all Nigerians and you can see yourself how close the base station is to residential buildings.”
