The Anambra State Government has arrested 30 hawkers and shut over 100 shops at the popular Eke Awka Market over environmental offences.

The Managing Director (MD) of Operation Keep Clean and Healthy (Ocha Brigade), Mr Celestine Anere, who disclosed this, said the state government would no longer tolerate street traders who blocked roads and shop owners who kept their environment dirty.

He said, "We are here this evening to decongest streets and stop hawkers and traders from blocking access roads for motorists to ply on the roads. We are tired of begging them not to trade on the main roads."

He noted that while clearing the street traders they discovered that drains were filled to the brim and blocked.

Speaking to newsmen during the operation, the Chairman of St Mary's Traders Association, Mr Obinna Umeh, said they had problems in clearing the drainage in their area.

He explained that they cleared the drainage three times within the year but that immediately after clearing the drainage it would be filled again because of a tunnel's closure and therefore appealed to Gov Chukwuma Soludo to help open the tunnel.