Just few weeks after Lagos state government announced a restriction on okada, tricycles, and, by extension, bike hailing services On Tuesday January 27 2020, the Lagos Environmental Sanitation Corps (LAGESC) has commenced arresting traders doing businesses on walkways on the streets across the state as the government declared a total ban on street trading.
The corps stated that the activities of the street traders have contributed to increasing traffic gridlocks in the state, adding that it has also been causing accidents as a result of reckless driving by some drivers in the state.
The Corps Marshal of the agency, CP Gbemisola Akinpelu (retd) said the agency was stepping up its operations and ensuring total clampdown on the arrest of recalcitrant traders not yielding to the various warnings and advocacy on street trading and hawking in different parts of Lagos State.
Giving the warning at the Command Headquarters in Oshodi, Akinpelu said: “The Governor, Mr. Babajide Sanwo-Olu has directed that all the roads in the State be rid of any form of impediment for free flow of traffic as well as safety of all and sundry.
‘’Walkways are meant for pedestrians to walk and not for trading activities so as to give room for motorists to enjoy smooth vehicular movement.”
The Corps Marshal further stated that there’s an increasing number of hawkers on the major highways which poses grave security implications for motorists as criminals disguised as hawkers exploit the opportunity to dispossess people of their valuables.
She explained that directives have been given to LAGESC officers to move out on all the major highways to arrest the hawkers for appropriate prosecution, saying that the roads are not meant for trading, but rather people should go into state-approved markets to engage in legalised trading activities.
She recounted that many lives have been lost due to brake failure as ‘hit and run’ drivers sometimes knock down hawkers, while some roads are always locked down as a result of activities of traders who display their goods on walkways and road sides for sale thereby impeding free vehicular and human movements.
Also commenting on the ongoing Ikoyi/Victoria Island clean-up exercise which has recorded remarkable success with the joint effort of other agencies such as Environmental and Special Offences Unit (Taskforce), Lagos State Traffic Management Authority (LASTMA), Lagos Waste Management Authority (LAWMA), Lagos State Special Offences (Mobile) Courts and the Lagos Neighbourhood Safety Corps (LNSC), she expressed the readiness of LAGESC operatives in sustaining the cleared areas in Ikoyi and Victoria Island, while also warning that anybody found around the cleared areas will be prosecuted and their seized goods be forfeited.
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She explained that the Commissioner for Environment and Water Resources, Mr. Tunji Bello has also directed that any of the Agency’s operatives found in any act compromising on this directive and the clean-Up exercise be dealt with accordingly.
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