Wike’s New Move Against Street Trading

Penultimate Wednesday, the Rivers State Governor, Chief Nyesom Wike, finally drew a battle line with illegal street traders in the State, especially in Port Harcourt City and Obio/Akpor local government areas.
Apparently irked by the recalcitrant attitude of illegal street traders and hawkers, the Rivers State Government, during last week’s State Executive Council meeting, in Government House, Port Harcourt, set up a high-powered special task force headed by the governor himself, to clear specific streets and roads in Port Harcourt and its environs of illegal traders.
Perhaps, to show the seriousness attached to getting maximum results this time around, the Wike-led task force set April 12 deadline for illegal traders to vacate the roads and streets and find more acceptable and conducive environment for their businesses or incur the full wrath of the government.
However, following traders’ plea for extension of time, the State Executive Council, at the end of its meeting, last Wednesday, extended the ultimatum to April 18, 2018 to enable illegal traders relocate.
Areas marked as ‘no go areas’ for street trading include Port Harcourt/Aba Expressway: from UTC Junction to Eleme Junction; Bishop Okoye Street, Ikwerre Road: from Education Bus Stop in Mile 1 through Mile 3, Mile 4 by Wimpy Junction, to Rumuokwuta and Rumuokoro roundabouts. Others are GRA Phase 2, Old GRA, Trans Amadi Industrial Layout, particularly Slaughter Roundabout, among others.
The Tide commends the State government for the proactive and pragmatic step taken thus far to tame the ugly monster of street trading and hawking in Port Harcourt and its environs. Indeed, the government’s initiative is not only timely and apt, but also imperative given the negative effects of street trading on the image of the State.
We note that besides hampering free flow of traffic, the activities of illegal traders have continued to deface Port Harcourt and its environs through indiscriminate dumping of refuse and solid waste on major roads and streets. Some traders even crassly force these wastes into drainages, water channels, creeks and canals, thereby hindering free flow of water and thus resulting in flooding in many parts of the State.
It is regretable that due to illegal trading in the State, the aesthetics and beautiful landscape that once made Port Harcourt a cynosure of all eyes and earned it the Garden City status appear to have faded away. In addition, some of the illegal traders somewhat transform into criminal cartels, using the unusual crowd at such locations to execute various forms of crimes and criminality, including armed robbery, car snatching and stealing.
To worsen the problem, commercial vehicle operators have taken advantage of the thriving and boisterous nature of these locations to open illegal motor parks, which most times, end up blocking parts of the roads and constituting huge challenge to smooth flow of traffic. In fact, we are aware that many street traders and hawkers had lost their lives while trading on the roads.
While we fully endorse the State Government’s strategy to rid Port Harcourt and its environs of the menace of street trading and hawking, we, however, appeal to the government to ensure the relocation and resettlement of the genuine ones amongst the traders to better and more secure areas so as to avoid forcing desperate individuals into criminality in a bid to eke out a living.
We also urge the government to extend its ‘operation no street trading in Port Harcourt and Obio/Akpor’ to other local government areas in the State, particularly Bori, Ahoada, Mbiama, Isiokpo, Eleme, Oyigbo, Omoku, among others. This way, the government would be seen to have applied a holistic approach towards addressing the menace of street trading in the State.
Meanwhile, we appeal to illegal street traders to reciprocate government’s gesture and make the necessary sacrifices towards returning Port Harcourt in particular, and indeed, the entire Rivers State to its past glory. We hope that the Wike-led government would, this time around, leave no stone unturned in its efforts to restore the Garden City status of Port Harcourt.