Abia State Environmental Protection Agency (ASEPA), Aba zone, has explained that the recent clamp down on street traders in Aba, the commercial hub of Abia State, is aimed at protecting the citizens as well as restoring sanity in the city.
Rowland Nwakanma, chairman, intervention committee, ASEPA, Aba zone, observed “trading along the road constitutes environmental nuisance and also exposes hawkers to danger,” stressing that no responsible government would fold its arms and watch its citizens perish.
Nwakanma, in company of some staff of the agency on inspection of Umungasi Market, along Aba-Owerri Road, warned traders to stop trading on the streets and highways to avoid the inherent dangers associated with street trading.
According to him, traders leave their shops and block the roads with their wares, thereby causing traffic jam, warning that henceforth any trader found trading on the street or major road will be arrested and prosecuted, while his or her wares will be impounded.
“Some of the hawkers are in the habit of displaying their wares on the road, thereby obstructing free flow of traffic, while others display their wares on drainages, using improvised stands to block drainages and waterways,” he said.
He stated that the agency would now monitor regularly street trading in Aba with the view to clearing the city of street trading, which according to him, contributed to the defacing of the city.
Aba is the eye of Abia State, as it hosts patrons from other states of the federation as well as neighbouring countries like Cameroon, Benin Republic, Togo, Ghana, Equatorial Guinea, among other sub-Saharan African countries.
Aba remains the foremost commercial, industrial and entertainment city of not just Abia State, but the entire South-East region of the country. It is also the melting pot for the entire Igbo race in their commercial and business adventurism.
Aba before now was in a state of decay and everybody knows that the previous administrations in the state abandoned the city, which resulted to failed infrastructure in the area.
To restore the city to its former glory, the present administration has embarked on an urban renewal programme geared towards opening up urban roads and drainages that have been blocked by street traders and other residents.
