Traders Take Over Afikpo Street Pedestrian Walkway

Traders at the recently
demolished Afikpo Street axis of the Rumuwoji Market popularly known as Mile I Market in Port Harcourt have taken over the pedestrian walk way spanning the length between Mile 1 post office and Assemblies of God Church, Mile 1, Diobu.
The traders lamented that since the demolition, they could not find somewhere else to sell their products, hence the decision to do their trading on the pedestrian walk- way.
They claimed that they were duely informed before the demolition exercise was carried out last week but they have no alternative place to go.
One of the traders at the Afikpo market, Mr Ifeanyi Gabriel, in a chat with The Tide, stated that they had been told several months ago that the market  would be demolished, but a date was not given to them and “they just spray the surprise demolition on us”.
Gabriel, who is the Public Relations Officer of the Afikpo Traders Union, further said, “ we had an agreement that they will give us an alternative, at least 14 days notice before the demolition, but no information came in that regard, we will stay here since they did not provide an alternative place for us”.
One of the evicted traders now on the pedestrian walkway, Mabel Amadi lamented, “how can they come at this time to destroy our source of income? Now that everywhere is hard, the little thing we are using to support our families, we have no place to displace them again.
Amadi appealed for an alternative site being provided for them so that they could trade to earn an honest living.
Another respondent, Beatrice Irechukwu appealed for a new place for the traders, saying that the main market was full and added, “apart from that, the traders in the big market would not even let us come in for fear of not having their customers taken away from them, stressing further that they cannot do any business during this raining season.

Tonye Nria-Dappa