A court in Kano, northern Nigeria, sentenced Muhammad Saeedu to 14 days in prison and fined him 100,000 naira, about $74, after neighbors said he was storing bags of human feces outside his home and making the area unlivable with the stench.
Residents reported the smell to environmental inspectors, who brought the case to court. Judge Halima Wali described Saeedu’s conduct as severely inconsiderate and a danger to public health. Before ruling, she personally visited the property to inspect the bags of waste. She also ordered Saeedu to remove all the waste and promised not to repeat the offense.
Saeedu, who works emptying septic tanks, apparently kept the waste in hopes of selling it to farmers as fertilizer. The BBC said the practice is common in the area, though rarely acknowledged publicly. Community leader Musa Abdullahi said he believed there were nearly 50 bags when the first complaint reached him, and that he had already intervened once before when Saeedu began storing the waste outside his house. “When he started the first time, I spoke to him and he removed them and stopped,” Abdullahi said. “I did not know when he went back to it.”
Neighbor Smaila Inuwa said residents first tried to settle the matter directly with Saeedu, but he did not stop. Inuwa said the case has already improved life in the neighborhood, adding, “Finally our neighborhood is pleasant again, with no bad smell.”
