By Funso Alarape
Friday, February 2, 2024
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The Oyo State Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources has sealed a branch of Christ Life Church located at Golden Estate, Oluyole, Ibadan, the State capital.
The Pathfindernews gathered that the government resorted to the closure of the assembly after several unresolved steps taken by the Ministry to mediate among the complainants, residents, and management of the church.
The Commissioner of Environment and Natural Resources, Arch. Abdulmojeed Mogbonjubola who disclosed this in Ibadan said that the State Government was left with no other option but to seal the church premises to avert a possible fight between the residents and the church on Sunday.
Some members of the community were said to have locked the estate gate against members of Christ Life Church in the past preventing services to held many times.
Mogbonjubola stated that the present administration would not fold its arms and allow escalations of any sort or breakdown of law and injunction.
He said officials of the Ministry on receipt of several complaints from next-door residents to the Church, over the incessant noise, through official letters and phone calls, visited the area, on Thursday 9th November, 2023.
“The team recorded the sound level of the church activities at intervals, starting from praise-worship, with the average reading of Seventy-four (74) DB (daytime), contravening the Extant Environmental Regulations of 2023, Section 58, Paragraph (b) which states that the noise limits for residential areas at daytime must not exceed 65DB.
“Hence, it was ascertained with sound measurements that the church constituted noise pollution.”
The Commissioner said that a meeting was held with the parties in the Ministry’s conference room on 29th November 2023 where the Church refused to sign an undertaking letter, with the excuse to get approval from its Headquarters and report back on Monday 4th December 2023.
He frowned at the consistent crisis caused by the noise, which led to the sealing of the church.
He however warned against the occurrence of noise pollution, both by churches, mosques, clubhouses, industries, companies, and marketplaces, as violators would be prosecuted, adding that the state has laws that must be obeyed and things done rightly.
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