Tuesday, 30 July 2013

Lagos Govt accuses traders, drivers of causing gridlock

Lagos State Government has accused street traders and commercial vehicle drivers operating within the Ikotun area of causing gridlock.

The government said if something was not done about the selling of wares and parking indiscriminately on the roads, defaulters would be made to face the full wrath of the law.

This warning was given by the Chairman, Lagos State Taskforce on Environmental and Special Offences Enforcement Unit, CSP Bayo Sulaiman, during a meeting with stakeholders in Alausa, Ikeja.

The task force chairman said, "Government has identified street trading and indiscriminate parking on the major roads, especially by commercial vehicles loading and offloading goods, as the main cause of gridlock in the area. It is necessary to convene this meeting to intimate you on government's displeasure over the situation and a possible solution to it."

Sulaiman said government did not want  majority of the residents  to suffer  to please a few number of traders and drivers who, in their bid to make brisk business, cause untold hardship for other road users.

He urged  property owners who were letting public road to street traders  to desist from such act, saying  the walkways, drainages and roads were not extension of their property.

He said, "A road that is free of encumbrance is not only beneficial to the citizenry, but also an advantage for the traders in terms of patronage."

A leader of Ikotun market, Alhaji Shakiru Amballi, said the traders also wanted an end  to street trading. He pledged that the unions would do more to ensure that things moved on accordingly.


Punch

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