Check Trading On PH Sidewalks, Expert Urges RSG

Following the complete
takeover of public sidewalks by traders and other business people in Port Harcourt and its environs, a public affairs analyst, Chief Godwin Eze, has called for action to reverse the trend.
Eze who spoke to The Tide yesterday in Port Harcourt blamed the development on the inactivity of various government agencies in checking the trend.
According to him, such agencies were only interested in collecting money from illegal trading to the detriment of the public.
Eze described the practice whereby commercial taxi drivers convert the walkways to their parks.
He frowned at the attitude of the drivers and other business people to members of the public.
Lending his voice to the menace, a landscaper, Mr. Morris Uzo, said the development was capable of inciting public disorder.
He called on the Ministry of Urban Development and Planning to re-strategise in order to check the ugly trend.
However, some traders and taxi drivers on Ikwerre Road, D/Line, Mile three and elsewhere who spoke to The Tide said the development was due to population increase.
According to Ikem Chukwu, a taxi driver who plies the mile three axis, the development could be controlled through the provision of more motor parks.
He said the National Union of Roads Transport Workers cannot handle the matter.
Chukwu opined that the state government should wade into the matter by building more motor parks for specific routes in order to stem the tide.