The Chairman of the Lagos State Taskforce, Olayinka Egbeyemi, yesterday issued a 72-hour notice to food vendors operating on an access road opposite the Airport Hotel, Awolowo Road, Ikeja, to relocate from there or face the wrath of the law.
Egbeyemi noted that the activities of the traders were preventing residents of the area from gaining easy access to or from their respective homes, particularly at night, adding that such an act contravened the Lagos State Environmental Sanitation Law.
The task force chief gave the directive at the end of an operation which the agency carried out at the weekend to rid Ikeja of hawkers, whom he accused of operating “recklessly” without regard for other road users.
At the end of the operation, carried out jointly by task force officials and the Lagos State Environmental Sanitation Corps (LAGESC), seven persons said to be involved in illegal trading were arrested.
Egbeyemi said the activities of illegal traders, hawkers and other environmental nuisances had become an eyesore impeding free flow of traffic in the Kodesoh Street, Medical Road, Ikeja Under-bridge and Railway Line areas.
He said the exercise was in line with Section (1) of the Lagos State Street Trading and Illegal Market Prohibition Law 2003, which prescribes a punishment of N90,000 or a six-month jail term for both the buyer and the seller of any goods or services on all roads across the state.
“Despite continous advocacy, enlightenment and appeals from the government, some illegal traders and hawkers are still of the habit of violating the extant environmental laws of the state by causing disorder and serious environmental infractions on the roads through their activities,” he said.
Egbeyemi said that government would “no longer tolerate the fragrant disregard of the law from any quarters, particularly traders who are fond of converting every available space into a market.”
He confirmed that during the exercise, different types of goods, ranging from fairly used clothes (okrika), shoes, belt and fairly used electronics to gas cylinders and mobile phone accessories were confiscated by the enforcement team.
“This is a pointer to other locations such as Oyingbo, Bariga, Mushin, Yaba, Orile-Iganmu, Apapa, Ikorodu, Mile 12, Ojota, Ojora, Obalende and Lagos Island where activities of these illegal traders impede free flow of traffic. It won’t be business as usual,” he said.
Warning all market union leaders to desist from collecting illegal fees from those involved in illegal trading and hawking, Egbeyemi said the agency would clamp down on owners of all illegally built kiosks and containarised shops on road set-backs and walk-ways.
He urged those whose shops are built on sidewalks to remove them immediately or face the wrath of the law.
He disclosed that the Lagos State Commissioner of Police, Zubairu Muazu, has directed that the seven arrested traders be charged to court.
