The General Secretary of the Flyover Petty Traders Association, Port Harcourt, Mrs. Justina Ufot, has raised an alarm over the collection of table and space fees from them, on a yearly and weekly basis, without receipt.
Ufot who disclosed this in an exclusive interview with The Tide on Wednesday, lamented the negative effect of the collections on their small businesses.
She alleged that traders at the flyover park pay a mandatory N10,000 every year irrespective of the size of the space occupied.
Ufot also added that apart from this, they also pay the sum of N600 per week to enable them continue doing their business.
The petty traders’ boss who only identified those involved in the collections as land owners said they had no option but to comply.
According to The Tide investigations, the payment of the sum of N10,000 a year takes place at a makeshift office in the popular Ikoku market in Mile Two Diobu.
When The Tide visited the area, and made some inquiries, a visibly worried middle aged man explained that he was not competent to speak on the matter.
He, however, disclosed that the collections had blessings from above.
“Look, Mr. Pressman, those collections are not illegal because it is from above”, he claimed.
The Tide further gathered that the areas that are covered by these collections include, the flyover area, motor parks, including food vendors, amongst other.
However, another official of the association who asked not to be named claimed that the state governor during his electioneering campaigns promised to come to the aid of the traders, through empowerments.
The official expressed the hope that the governor would keep to his promise as, according to him the traders have made efforts to see the governor to no avail.
It could be recalled that few weeks ago, the state governor banned all forms of illegal collection of fees and taxes pending harmonization of such processes.