By Mary Bassey, House of Assembly Correspondent
The Cross River State House of Assembly has called on the Ministry of Environment and other agencies involved in animal control to stop the menace of unrestrained domestic animals within Calabar metropolis.
The Lawmakers urge the agencies to ensure that domestic animals no longer roam the streets of Calabar metropolis adding that they should be restrained by their owners.
The House adopted this resolution following a motion calling for the sanitization of Calabar metropolis of stray domestic animals, sponsored by the Member representing Obubra 1 State Constituency, Hon. Ovat Agbor.
Agbor stressed that “all kinds of unrestrained domestic animals roam the streets constituting a nuisance and littering the streets with their droppings, unrestrained goats, sheep and cattle destroy gardens and greenery meant to beautify the State.”
According to the Lawmaker, the menace of unrestrained domestic animals has caused several life-threatening incidents in the metropolis recently.
His words: “Just last week, a stray dog attacked a boy returning from school inflicting life-threatening injuries on him, it is the ultimate responsibility of the owners to accommodate and provide for these animals,” Agbor said.
In contribution, the Member representing Boki 2 State Constituency, Rt. Hon Hillary Bisong while supporting the motion, stressed the urgent need for the elimination of the trend which is negatively impacting the tourism potentials of the State.
Other lawmakers, including co-sponsors of the motion in their various comments enumerated several disadvantages of allowing domestic animals roam the metropolis and called urgent steps to control them.
The Speaker of the Assembly, Rt. Hon. Elvert Ayambem described the motion as ‘timely’. He stressed that The House will continue to ensure that the status of Calabar as the cleanest city in Nigeria is maintained.