2 November 2009
Lagos — Trading on Lagos streets and traffic jams has continued unabated in spite of the law banning street trading, according to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) investigations.
Investigations by NAN in Lagos last Friday showed that street traders have continued to sell on the streets while young men manoeuver between vehicles at traffic jams.
Items on display include vehicle parts, shoes, soft drinks, sachet and bottled water, confectioneries and household items like cutleries and beddings.
Traders, who spoke with NAN, feigned ignorance of the ban on street trading.
Paul Obi, who claimed to have dropped out in SS1, told NAN that he left the motorcycle business because of the risk involved to take up street trading.
Obi, 21, who was interviewed on Funsho Williams Avenue (formerly Westerner Avenue), said: "It is safer selling on the traffic," adding that he makes more money selling Gala sausages in the traffic.
According to him, I abandoned Okada business due to the accident I had last year and the danger associated with it.
"We usually abandon our wares and take to our heels anytime we sight members of the task force," he said.
He appealed to the state task force on street trading to allow the business on the street as shops were very expensive for the average trader.
Mrs. Bola Olorode, a housewife, who displays ladies' clothing on Kano Street, Oyingbo, said she had to move to the street to sell after her makeshift shop was demolished.
"My container was destroyed by the task force. I have five children to cater for and the support from my husband is not much.
"One has to pay through her nose to get a good shop and one is not sure if she would not be duped by agents," Olorode said.
According to her, a shop at the new Tejuosho market costs N700,000.
NAN reports that the boundary area in Ajegungle, was the worst hit by the activities of street traders as the area has been taken over by street traders including under-aged traders.
Mrs. Joke Abudu, a street trader, told NAN that she had got used to selling on the street and how to evade arrest from members of the environmental task force.
"They have seized my wares many times and that does not stop me from coming to the streets again.
"I and my children must eat. I have to pay their school fees and also pay house rent as a widow," Abudu said.
A task force official, who declined to disclose his name, told NAN at an Environmental Mobile Court at Costain, Lagos Mainland Local Government, said the task force was doing everything to enforce the law.
He explained that those arrested were tried by the court and fined or jailed if they could not pay the fines, while their wares were confiscated.
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