The first four offenders of the anti-littering regulation which came into force in 2009 have been convicted and fined.

This was disclosed to Daily Observer yesterday by Mohamed J Jabang, the Environmental Quality Programme officer at the National Environment Agency (NEA). According to Jabang, Sellou Jallow, Abdourahman Touray, Mohamed M Fissiru and Alhagie Chima Fissiru were all charged for discharging wastewater into public streets/gutters before Magistrate George of the Kanifing Magistrates? Court. They were convicted of the charges preferred against them and fined D5, 000 in default to serve one-month imprisonment, with Alhagie Chima Fissiru getting a double conviction for committing the offence twice.

He added that two other offenders are yet to know their fate as one of them, Seihou Koita, pleaded not guilty while the other, Lamin Danso failed to show up during the trial. Jabang explained that concerns were raised and observations made during the trial, in which the magistrate stated that there is even a need to detain environmental offenders and release them only on bail before they are brought to court in order to track them easily if they fail to appear in court. He then called for community-police collaboration on anti-littering matters when there is a need to arrest environmental offenders.