Following the official inauguration of the Rivers State Task Force on Street Trading, Illegal Markets and Motor Parks by the state Governor, Chief Nyesom Wike, last Wednesday, the Bright Amaewhule-led 460 team will finally commence operation, today.
The team, which draws 20 carefully-selected persons each from the 23 local government areas of the state, has had its members screened and cleared by crack detectives of the Department of State Services (DSS) in Port Harcourt, the state capital.
The Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Information and Communications, Pastor Paulinus Nsirim, said in a statement in Port Harcourt that the task force would cover 13 zones in Port Harcourt City, Obio/Akpor and Eleme local government areas of the state.
While four teams would cover Port Harcourt City Local Government Area; eight teams would cover Obio/Akpor Local Government Area; just as one team would cover Eleme Local Government Area of the state.
The teams would cover the 13 zones, which include Old Port Harcourt Township/Lagos/Station/UTC Bus Stops; Flyover/Mile 1 Market; Mile 3 Market/Ikoku/Building Materials; and Fruit Market/Garrison/Waterlines for Port Harcourt City.
Others would cover Slaughter/Woji/Oginigba; Rumuokoro Junction; Presidential Hotel/ Rumuola; Rumuokwuta/ Mgbuoba Market/Location Junction; Artillery/Rumukwurushi/ Eleme Interchange/Oil Mill Market; Eliozu Junction Flyover/East-West Road; Choba/UNIPORT/East-West Road; and Rumuolumeni/Rumuepirikom in Obio/Akpor; while that of Eleme would cover Akpajo/Onne/Eleme/Refinery Road.
“All those concerned are advised in their own interest to vacate the streets of Port Harcourt or face the full wrath of the law,” Nsirim warned.
It would be recalled that while inaugurating the task force, last Wednesday, the state Governor, Chief Nyesom Wike had charged the team to sanitise the streets and return Port Harcourt to its original Garden City status.
Wike had said that the task force was a product of law, following his assent to the Rivers State Street Trading, Illegal Markets & Motor Parks (Prohibition) Bill No. 8 of 2019, and vowed that the law must be enforced and violators brought to book to serve as a deterrent to others.
The governor noted that all the operatives of the task force have been profiled by the DSS and the police, while those found wanting have been flushed out.
Wike explained that the reason government sent the task force members to the DSS and the police for screening was for proper identification and to ensure that government did not take people who will put it in trouble, and assured that more appointments would be made into the task force to replace those screened out by the security agencies.
He said: “All of us love the state and we must love it fully. Not in half measures. When we build roads, before you know what is happening, the roads are taken over by street traders and illegal motor parks.
“The task force has the responsibility of cleaning up the streets. Ensure that nobody trades on roads. You must wear your vests and identity cards during your work period”, he emphasised.
He said that mobile courts have been established on a zonal basis, and directed the task force operatives to take arrested street traders, mechanics and illegal motor park operators to the mobile courts were offenders would be tried, jailed or fined.
The work of the members is to arrest offenders and take them before the mobile courts in each of the 13 zones.
Wike warned the task force operatives against extorting money from street traders and mechanics, noting that any operative indicted for bribery would be sacked and replaced.
“We are not inaugurating you to extort money from traders and mechanics. You will start work on Monday, August 26. We have given the street traders enough time to leave the streets. The Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Information, should continue the sensitisation announcements.
“We will give each zone two Hilux vans for operations. You must keep Port Harcourt clean. You must make sure that you work in shifts and close by 8pm at night. My interest is to return Port Harcourt to what it used to be”, he said.
“Look at Rumuokoro. We built park for them but they will leave it and come to the road to carry passengers. We buitd market, they will come to the road to trade”, the governor lamented.
He said some of the traders come all the way from the neighbouring states to trade on the roads in Port Harcourt, after which, they heap dirt in the city and move back to their states.
Earlier, the Secretary to the Rivers State Government, Dr Tammy Danagogo, had said that 460 operatives were recruited from the 23 local government areas of the state, adding that each local government area contributed 20 operatives to the task force.
He said that the street life of Port Harcourt has been compromised by street trading and illegal motor parks, but insisted that the task force would sanitise the roads.
Danagogo said that the state government has taken the biometrics of all the operatives after they were profiled by security agencies, stressing that 13 zones have been created for the operation of the task force.
Meanwhile, the Chairman, Bayelsa Line Market Association in Mile 111, Diobu, Port Harcourt, Chief Godwin Nwosu says effort by the Governor Nyesom Wike-led administration to restore the Garden City status of Port Harcourt is a noble one, and promised that members of his association would support him to succeed.
The association’s chairman stated this in an interview with The Tide in Port Harcourt.
He lamented that Port Harcourt City, which was known for its beautiful and serene nature, had been reduced to a place where anything goes in terms of environmental standard, and called on all well-meaning persons living or doing business in Rivers State to support the clean Port Harcourt initiative.
“There is need to restore Port Harcourt City to what it used to be. There is need to eliminate street trading, illegal motor parks and roadside mechanics scattered all over the city”, he said.
Nwosu, who disagreed with those who attribute street trading to inadequate shops in public markets, said majority of those trading on the streets have shops in the ultramodern markets.
“It is not true that street trading in Port Harcourt is as a result of inadequate shops in the public markets.
“Government has provided markets for traders. When you go to the ultramodern markets, over 500 stalls are empty. Go to Rumuokoro, government built ultramodern market, but it is empty. Go to Rukporkwu, it is empty.
“The owners of the vacant stalls prefer to lock them up and move to the street because they believe that there is higher patronage there”, he said, stressing that by trading on the roads, they put their lives at risk as moving vehicles could run into them.
He accused traders of being responsible for over 70 per cent of the dirt in the city, and urged the task force in charge of street trading to be strict and serious to improve on sanitation in the city.
“The problem with government is that sometimes, they are serious, and sometimes, they relax their efforts. Let government be very serious to fight and achieve clean Port Harcourt initiative once and for all.
“Don’t compromise, deal with offenders and possibly jail them, then, you will see that they will not do it again. But if government relaxes its effort, they will return to the streets to trade”, he said.
The market chairman, who revealed that he was a staunch member of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the state, urged those who massively voted for Governor Nyesom Wike to also support his laudable programmes to succeed, noting that “it is not enough for you to vote him into office, only to work against the policies of his government”.
He said the idea of compulsory sanitation for traders every Thursday was in the spirit of keeping the markets and business environment clean, and urged all market operators in the state, especially those in the rural areas to participate in the exercise for cleaner environment.