Police Nab 30 Hawkers Over Feud With RSESA

About 30 street hawkers who operate along Aba Road close to Bori Camp are now cooling their heels in police custody after they attacked official of the Rivers State Environmental Authority (RSESA) yesterday in Port Harcourt.

The chairman of Rivers State Environmental Sanitation Special Taskforce on Street Hawking, Larry Aguma told newsmen that the officials were attacked while trying to enforce ban on street trading.

The chairman of the Street Trading and Hawkers taskforce stated that some of the officials who were attacked are now receiving treatment at an undisclosed hospital in Port Harcourt.

Earlier before the incidence some of the street traders had appealed to the state government to provide them with other means of livelihood.

On the other hand, some motorists who spoke to The Tide over the development supported the effort to rid the road of street hawkers.

While describing the activities of hawkers as posing nuisance to road users, they advised the authorities to ensure that an alternative means of livelihood is provided for them as a way of taking them off the streets.

Meanwhile, Rivers State Government has frowned at the attack on law enforcement agents and sanitation officials by street hawkers in Port Harcourt.

Reacting to the development, Acting Chief Press Secretary to the state Governor, Mr Blessing Wikina said the action has confirmed the fact that hoodlums now disguise as hawkers to perpetrate mayhem along the street of Port Harcourt.

Mr Wikina, said the action of the street traders along the Port Harcourt Aba/Expressway in the early hours of yesterday in beating a policeman to coma and shooting a sanitation official shows undoubtedly that criminals are now masquerading as street traders.

He affirmed that street trading remains outlawed in the state by law and anyone who engages in any form of street trading would be arrested and prosecuted under the relevant laws.

Wikina added, “ we wish to remind residents of Port Harcourt and those that patronise street traders that they are also liable , as they encourage the violation of the law through their patronage of these suspected criminals disguised as traders.