Displaced Traders Appeal For Govt Support

Traders whose stores were demolished at the former Obi-Wali Cultural Centre temporary  market have continued to lament their losses.
Chairman of the Mile I Market Association, Kenneth Eze who spoke with newsmen in Port Harcourt, said that all the letters written to the Rivers State Government and the Rivers State House of Assembly were yet to yield positive results.
His words: “We have written a special letter to the government and the Rivers State House of Assembly on how to relocate or provide an alternative place for them or compensate them for the losses incurred  but up till now no result”.
“We are not confronting the state government, but we are only trying to tell them to see to the plight of the displaced traders”.
Mr Eze appealed to the government to help the traders to cushion their losses, adding “as I speak to you now, there has been no response from the government”.
He noted that most of the traders are helpless while some are loitering under the Mile One flyover doing nothing tangible, thereby constituting nuisance to the state.
He called on the state government to come to the aid of the traders as most of them are hopeless, adding that if nothing is done to alleviate their  sufferings, the state will have social or security problems.
It would be recalled that the Rivers State Government, last month demolished stores at the temporary market   for security reasons which were, however, denied by the traders.

Susan Serekara-Nwikhana