Akwa Ibom State has been rated the cleanest state in Nigeria by Clean-up Nigeria beating the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) by two per cent.

Clean-Up Nigeria,in a statement, said the ratings submitted by the National Technical Study Group (NTSG) showed that Akwa Ibom State scored 68 per cent, followed by Abuja with 66 per cent.

Secretary Ene Baba Owoh, NTSG  National Coordinator, noted that the report covered January 2018 to last December.

According to the report, “In 2019, the Study Group comprised 15 members who were shared into seven teams of two persons per team for each geo-political zone. The team went round the six geo-political zones of the country every quarter of the yea rwhile the  five  international partners and the NTSG carried out verification tours around the nation to monitor and re-evaluate earlier scores submitted by each study team.

Akwa Ibom State in South-south Nigeria has emerged the Cleanest State for last year, while FCT emerge the Cleanest City according to the results shown.

Year 2018, only three states were named clean but last year, five  states were named.

The practice of open defecation in all the  thirty-six states of the Federation and FCT is still very alarming and calls for increased knowledge of sanitation and hygiene to meet the MDG-target by 2025, it is however,praiseworthy that the federal government of Nigeria in 2019 signed an MOU to increase both funding and education to combat open defecation. In the month of February Nigeria was declared the number one country in the world that leads in open defecation.