RSG Denies Eviction Notice To Traders

Rivers State Commissioner for Works, Hon Bethuel Iheanyi Chukwu, has said that the ministry did not serve eviction notice to traders at Creek Road Market in Port Harcourt Township.
It could be recalled that last Wednesday, some women traders staged a protest in front of the state Government House alleging that some natives of the market and the ministry of works, threatened to evict them from part of the market within one week.
But the commissioner in an interview with newsmen in Port Harcourt recently explained that the ministry only awarded the reconstruction of an existing road within the market.
Chukwu said the reconstruction would only affect those occupying the road at the moment.
“The ministry of works, did not give anybody any letter to vacate.
“We have not held any meeting with the market women or any of their representatives and I am sure that there is a mix up and we are all aware that the contract for the reconstruction of Creek Road has been awarded to Julius Berger”, he said.
The State Commissioner for Works, however, explained that any trader that is on the right of way naturally should move away for the reconstruction to go on.
He explained that the reconstruction would not take a new alignment but only the reconstruction of the already existing road.
Meanwhile, some traders at the market have insisted that some government officials believed to be from either the ministry of works or that of the state ministry of transport in collaboration with some natives have served them with eviction notice.
The traders told The Tide while on a visit to the market that about three thousand shops could be affected to pave way for the construction of the link road from the waterfront to the cultural centre, near the market.
They, however, welcomed the idea of the reconstruction of the existing road within the market.