Some residents of Port
Harcourt and environs have expressed mixed ideas on the trading and use of second-hand clothes otherwise known  as “Bend-down or o.k clothes”.
While some welcomed the trading  as a relief to so many families, in terms of financial burdens, others have posited that it has reduced the dignity of persons using and trading on them, as well as having psychological spiritual and health implications.
Mr. David Muzina, a civil servant said that the world was no longer safe, but full of wicked people who have made a lot of people to be more careful in life.
According to him, the issue of Ebola has opened people’s eyes, pointing out that some of the used clothes from Ebola patients which were not disinfected could actually be a means of spreading the disease to other countries and urged people to be careful on handling the second hand purchased clothes.
For Mrs Grace Okpara, a teacher by profession, many people have had an attack due to these second hand wears they bought, especially through some people that are agents of darkness.
She said, “there are cases where clothes or wears bought as second hand become a problem to the buyer. Such wears might have passed through some spiritual processes and impact negatively on the buyer, depending on his or her spiritual development.
Meanwhile, a trader in the fairy used clothes, Mrs Janeth Ishiaka, and popularly called, “Mama David”, has said that the trading of such has created employment to so many people, who are now engaged in such business and take care of themselves and dependants.
Apart from the employment, she said that the fairly used clothes have helped so many Nigerian families to meet up with the clothing demand of their children, with lasting quality and reduced prices.
She said it is cheaper to get some wears to the same quality from bend-down boutique, than can be got from the regular shops and super-markets.

Corlins Walter