Why Osun towns, streets have become homes for lunatics – Report

Scores of stakeholders in the Environment and Sanitation sector on Tuesday decried what they described as government insensitivity towards mentally challenged people in Osun State, DAILY POST reports.

According to them, no single policy statement or initiative has been set in motion since the creation of the state to get these individuals off the street.

An environmental activist in the state, Mrs Folashade Umar said successive governments in the state did not deem it fit to build any rehabilitation centre for lunatics.

She said, “It is a common phenomenon in Osun to see different types of mentally deranged persons roaming the streets, including strategic areas within Osogbo, the state capital.

“It is very unfortunate that a state like Osun did not build a single rehabilitation centre for mentally challenged persons, and no single efforts on the part of government to get them off the streets.

“Even within Osogbo metropolis, there are many lunatics around the popular Ola-Iya junction, and many of them were roaming around the metropolis,”Umar said.

In the same vein, the Executive Director of Green Consciousness Initiative in the state, Mr Goke Ibironke said government in the state was not doing enough to help lunatics live a decent life.

According to him, “despite the huge achievement of the present government in the area of environment, it has failed woefully in taking care of the mentally challenged people.

” Successive governments in Osun, including the present one do not favourably disposed to the welfare of the lunatics, they have totally neglected them without iota of compassion towards these people.

“Despite the laudable achievement of the present administration in the area of environment through “O’Clean, Igi-Iye, and others, lunatics were left on the streets without care,” he said.

Also, an Horticulturist and advocate of clean environment at Ile-Ife,Mr Dipo Salako said lunatics in the state were too vulnerable.

Salako gave an instance when armed robbers during a robbery incident at Lagere area of the town shot a lunatic dead in cold blood.

He said recently, a lunatic was found dead with mutilated body in the town, adding that lunatics constitute big nuisance to the environment around major towns in the state.

“It is a common sight here in Ile-Ife,where you find lunatics wandering around the streets and the highways, they are so vulnerable here in Osun as government care less for them,” Salako added.

Meanwhile,all efforts to get the reactions of the Coordinating Director in the Ministry of Environment proved abortive, as he was said to be busy throughout when our reporter visited his office.

DAILY POST recalls that Gov. Rauf Aregbesola has not constituted his cabinet since he was sworn in on November 26, 2014. Coordinating Director heads the ministry in the absence of a Commissioner.