Akwa Ibom State has emerged the cleanest state in the country, according to the index ratings by Clean Up Nigeria (CUN) of the Cleanest State in Nigeria.

The group said Abuja emerged as the cleanest city in the cities category.

In a statement, its National Coordinator, Ene Baba-Owo, stated that Ebonyi State came a second, scoring 44 per cent to Akwa Ibom’s 80 per cent.

Lagos, Bauchi, Cross River, Rivers, Plateau, Niger and Ekiti states were placed third to 10th while Kogi was the lowest ranked state in the study.

In the cleanest city category Abuja and (not the

Baba-Owo said the results were the outcome of a 15-member national technical study group on the state of the Nigerian Environment Report 2020 with focus on the  cleanliness index ratings of states and cities/towns conducted by CUN with support from global project partners from Canada, United States, Germany, France and Australia.

He said the study was scored on five performance indicators via physical verification 20 per cent and the deployment of GEO-Eye-1 satellite that has the highest resolution imagery system in the world which collected images with a ground resolution of 0.41 meters (16 inch) in panchromatic and multi-spectral from the orbit every quarter year round and gives accurate reliable data that is applied to the five performance indicators as highlighted as follows: (1) streets/road cleanliness 30 per cent (2) vegetation/drain control 20 per cent (3) waste management service 30 per cent (4) public opinion poll+ social media 10per cent  (5) knowledge, attitude and practice (KAP) of hygiene and sanitation of the people 10per cent, totaling 100 per cent.

The study ran from last December to this November, with quarterly evaluation.

While Abuja scored 68 per cent to come first, Uyo followed it with 63 per cent.

Ikeja, the Lagos State capital, placed third with 44per cent while Maiduguri, the  Borno State capital, came last in the category.

The study observed a significant drop in the level of waste management in the country, especially in the areas of equipment most of which have been grounded and unserviceable.

But the most disturbing of the study’s observations is that Nigeria still remained the number one country in the world in the practice of open defecation.