In what seems as a slight swing of tactics in its battle to rid Abuja of hawking and other forms of street trading, the Abuja Environment Protection Board (AEPB) is set to move against traders in the markets, for allegedly encouraging the menace.
Accordingly, the Board would not spare any trader in the markets bent on exploiting unemployed youth, by supplying them with goods to sell on the streets, warning them to restrict their businesses to their shops in the markets.
Consequently, hard times now await traders in various markets in the nation’s capital especially the Federal Capital City (FCC) using street hawkers for the purpose of making sales, as they constitute major nuisance to the city.
Speaking at an operational briefing press conference, yesterday in Abuja, the newly appointed Acting of the AEPB, Baba Lawan Shehu, warned that the Board under him has zero tolerance for street trading and hawking in the Territory.
This, he said is part of the many measures to reposition AEPB to discharge its function of keeping the city clean, in line with Abuja Master plan.
“We don’t want to see them (hawkers) on the street; this is a clarion call to the traders and their associations in the markets, as they should desist from giving goods to the hawkers to market and sell for them. They not only constitute nuisance to the motorists but deface the beauty of the city,” he stressed.
He said the Board has identified 17 beats and five flash points, adding that it has already received an approval of 128 personnel from the FCT police command to support its enforcement drive in the city.
Furthermore, he advised residents in residential and business premises to ensure they acquired approved waste bins for proper waste collection and evacuation from their premises.
He however warned that failure to comply with this directive will attract the full wrath of the law to serve as deterrence to other business and private premises.
Similarly, the Director of Monitoring and Inspection Depart of the FCTA , Mr. Oluwole Olabiyi, said action is been mapped out to effectively tackle many challenges facing the delivery of social infrastructures and services in the Territory.
“FCT Administration isworking assiduously to make life livable for all FCT residents, through provision and maintenance of social infrastructures and services in the Territory,” he noted.
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