Street Trading: Obuah Orders Hawkers, Others To Quit

The Sole Administrator, Rivers State Waste Management Agency (RIWAMA), Bro Felix Obuah, has issued a 24-hour deadline from yesterday for traders and others doing business on the median of the road from Eleme Junction to Imo River Gate in Port Harcourt, the state capital, and other parts of the state, to vacate the road or face severe consequences.
Obuah, in a statement, last Monday, warned that any property or wares found on the median in the affected roads and other parts of the state, after the expiration of the deadline would be confiscated.
He said the agency had already positioned its bulldozers and caterpillars in readiness to carry out the order, should the traders and those doing business in the affected areas fail to comply.
The RIWAMA boss said the agency had served abatement notices to the defaulting traders and others doing business on the median, adding that sensitization campaign had also been carried out in the area in the past weeks.
Obuah further disclosed that RIWAMA officials had already marked all the abandoned vehicles, caravans and ring culverts, adding that the agency would not hesitate to confiscate the equipment on the expiration of the deadline.
While reiterating his appeal to business owners and all kinds of traders in the state not to engage in acts of defacing or littering public roads and their business environments, as well as dump refuse or trade on the median, but to support the efforts of the Rivers State Governor, Chief Nyesom Wike, in keeping the state neat and healthy for human habitation, Obuah warned the traders and business operators that it would be in their own interest to comply with the directive or have themselves to blame.
He stressed the need for all traders and other business operators in the state to be law-abiding and desist from trading on the median of the roads, stating that by so doing, they would be reciprocating the gestures of Governor Nyesom Wike, who is working assiduously to make life better for the people of the state.