For those salesmen vending assorted items in Lagos
traffic, some hard times are just by the corner. The
authorities in Lagos State say they will soon bare their
fangs on street traders.
The sight of the slightest traffic jam on Lagos roads
is, surely, a prayer answered for street hawkers.
They surface from nowhere to cash in on the
unpalatable experience for their own benefits. As
long as the traffic lasts, the hawkers, young and old,
male and female, lay siege to the road and freely
sell their commodities. The heavier the gridlock, the
happier they get.
In the traffic on any major road in Lagos, you see
hawkers of every item, including machetes, knives,
assorted alcoholic drinks, recharge cards, shoe racks,
live chickens and such items.
For the Lagos State government and many residents,
more worrisome are the several reports on the
activities of persons who masquerade as hawkers and
beggars during the day, especially in traffic, but
whose sole aim is to perpetrate evil and rob
unsuspecting motorists and commuters of their
valuables.
Aside from the far-reaching implication of street
trading in terms of accidents, which are fatal in most
cases, street trading also affects the free flow of
traffic in the metropolis as well as contradicts the
environmental sanitation laws. Such hawkers and
their customers litter the roads with waste, it was
gathered.
The Lagos government has repeatedly vowed to rid
the state of street trading by fully enforcing the
provisions of the law restricting that kind of trade.
Section one of the Street Trading and Illegal Market
Prohibition Law 2003, restricts street trading and
hawking in the metropolis. Sections seven and eight of
the same law gives jurisdiction and power to the
special court to order the seizure and public auction
of items impounded from street traders. Section 10
of the law prescribes a N5000 fine or three months
imprisonment upon conviction.
Despite several warnings by the government that the
hawkers should be safety conscious, steer clear of the
streets and ensure they seek for spaces in various
markets designated for trading in the state, the act
has continued unabated.
A young man in his early 20s, only identified as
Chisom, was a popular sausage roll hawker around the
7UP/Tollgate area of Lagos. He bought a commercial
yellow bus, commonly called danfo, in less than one
year of selling in traffic. His swift success raised so
many questions within his neighbourhood, but the new
bus owner attributed his breakthrough to hard work
and God’s favour. However, in a quick succession,
there was a dramatic turnaround in Chisom’s story.
He was paraded by the police on the television after
he was allegedly caught during a robbery in the state.
Similarly, sometime in 2011, a young boy was caught
in the dead hour of the night, using a digger to
expand a pothole at Dopemu bus stop on the Lagos
Abeokuta Expressway. A mobile police officer was said
to have sighted the small boy while he was driving at
the other side of the road to Oshodi. Upon the
officer’s enquiry, the young boy explained that he
was filling the road, but further checks by the curious
policeman confirmed his suspicion that the boy was
doing more harm to the already affected portion.
The boy later confessed to be a hawker in
traffic.
Perturbed by the unhealthy development, Governor
Akinwunmi Ambode recently said after an emergency
Security Council Meeting, which he chaired, it had
become evident that traffic crimes and robbery were
mostly as a result of the menace of okada riders and
street hawkers. He said his government would not
allow a few notorious elements to cause a breakdown
in law and order and upset the peace that the state
had enjoyed over the years.
Ambode urged residents to cooperate with the
government at all times, just as he warned them
against the dangers of patronising street hawkers. He
assured that the government was working hard to
curtail their activities.
“The next hawker could be a robber or terrorist. You
are now well advised. If we all cooperate and decide
not to buy, gradually and collectively, the hawkers
will not come to the highways and streets anymore. We
have already hit the ground running. I’m deeply
concerned about the issues that Lagosians are sending
back to me, and the issues range from security issues,
gridlock and the environment itself. Our roads will
definitely become safer,” he stated. Some days back
in the wee hours of the day, operatives of the Rapid
Response Squad (RRS) of Lagos Police Command
arrested three ex-convicts for traffic robbery in
Oshodi. The robbery suspects – Adekunle Mustapha,
21, Popoola Olumide, 20, and Femi Amusa, 20 – were
arrested, following a tip off from their victim,
Olasunkanmi Oyelakin, who alerted the police that his
blackberry phone was stolen by the suspects during
the early morning traffic around Bolade, Oshodi.
The victim told the Police: “I was on my way to Ajah
at about 6.30am; I saw Adekunle Mustapha pass by
the bus I boarded. There was a traffic jam. As I
brought out my phone, Mustapha took it from me
through the bus window and ran away. I noticed that
he had regrouped with his friends. I knew I couldn’t
handle the three of them all alone, so I informed the
RRS operatives, who followed me down to the place
where he was arrested.”
Also, men of the RRS apprehended Timothy
Ojomandu, 22, alleged to be a member of a three-
man syndicate who attacks and robs law-abiding
motorists around the Mile 2 area of the state. The
suspect was recently caught in the act at about
7.30pm, by the policemen, who responded to a
distress call made by a victim – the driver of a
Mitsubishi Canter with registration number, FKJ 676
XF. But that was after the suspect and his gang
members had successfully stolen one carton of cell
battery from the truck that was fully loaded.
The lorry driver, Mr. Ajiboye Mogaji, who
accompanied the suspect to the RRS Headquarters at
Alausa, told the police that he sighted the suspect
from the side mirror of his vehicle when he sneaked
in through the back of the truck, but he pretended as
if he didn’t see him. Hear him: “While inside the
truck, he passed one carton to his partner, who was
moving beside the vehicle. I rushed down on motion.
However, when his partner saw me alight from the
vehicle, he absconded with that one carton but I held
the suspect by his trousers when he wanted to jump
down from the truck. Then, I shouted for help and
the policemen from RRS, who were patrolling the area
responded swiftly to the distress call.”
In the same vein, the RRS men on August
25, apprehended one Tijani Taofeek, 26, suspected
to be a member of a gang that robs in traffic around
Ojota. The operatives acted on incessant complaints
from motorists and pedestrians plying the roads,
many of whom had been victims of this criminal act
on many occasions.
The suspect, who hails from Ogbomosho in Oyo State,
said that he was a bus conductor, and that the
income from his job was no longer sufficient for him.
The Permanent Secretary, Ministry of the
Environment, Mr. Oluwatoyin Onisarotu, also warned
that traders that did not abide by the state
environmental sanitation law would henceforth be
seriously dealt with.
In his words: “It is disheartening to see how our
major roads and highways like Apapa – Oshodi
Expressway, Ikorodu Road, Agege Motor Road,
Victoria Island, Ikoyi – Obalende, Ojuelegba –
Stadium, Surulere, Oyingbo, Carter Bridge, Idumota,
Oshodi, Ketu, Mile 12, Third Mainland Bridge, Cele,
Iyana-Ipaja, Agbado Oke-Odo, Airport Road, Ikeja,
among others have been converted to illegal
markets.”
Many residents of Lagos are also worried by the
menace caused by some street traders, who display
their wares close to the main road, especially at most
of the busy bus stops. Their illegal activities usually
lead to heavy traffic on the road, causing motorists
untold agony.
Chairman of the State Task Force on Environmental
and Other Special Offences (Enforcement Unit), Mr.
Olubukola Abe, told newsmen in Lagos recently that
activities of the hawkers actually added to traffic
congestion on the highways.
“We are putting a searchlight on this trend and one
way to do that is to ensure that we take pre-emptive
measures to forestall this development,” he said.
Aside from the criminal aspect of street trading,
Lagos State Commissioner of Police, Fatai Owoseni,
warned of the possible health hazards of patronising
such hawkers. He cited the recent arrest of five men
who were caught by operatives of the RRS, selling
adulterated plastic table water and coca-cola.
“The law on street trading also affects its patrons.
People should stop patronising street hawkers,” the
police boss warned.


http://sunnewsonline.com/new/lagos-govt-police-battle-street-hawkers-traffic-robbers/

Izorite

Is this a poem or a thread?

If dix is true, ibos will leave lagos bdat...cox all dix crime ar committed by d ibos