Hawkers operating in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) have resolved to remain on the streets of the nation’s capital city unless the FCT administration provides an alternative place for them to do their businesses.
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The hawkers have also condemned what they described as inhuman treatment meted out to their members arrested by the FCT authorities and have called on the authorities to desist from harassing them forthwith.
The hawkers, under the aegis of United Women and Youth Traders Association of Nigeria, disclosed this in a communiqué at a one-day meeting held in Wuse, yesterday.
They said that hawking served as the only means of livelihood for them, their children and other dependants and they would not desist from it if alternatives were not provided for them.
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National president of the association, Mrs. Patricia Nwoye, who briefed journalists at the end of the meeting, lamented that many of the hawkers arrested on Abuja streets, by the Abuja Environmental Protection agency (AEPB), were presently languishing in various prisons in the FCT and beyond.
According to her, sending arrested hawkers to prisons was counterproductive as it would rather than solve the problem; make it worse, especially as most of those arrested were women under-age girls.
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Nwoye said, “We thought prison yards were meant for criminals, but we are shocked that many of our members, especially our women and under-age girls have been taken to the Suleja Prisons for hawking on Abuja streets. This action does not help in the development of our society and the youths of this country, especially when many of these convicts are under-age girls,” she said.
The national president noted that most of the youths and women hawking on the street were bread-winners of their homes and noted that clamping down on them without an alternative.
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The association said rather than imprisonment, the administration could explore better ways of dealing with the situation, such as developing informal markets in locations across the city where the hawkers could do their business, and added “They should also create small scale industries and provide soft loans to assist these women to boost their productions, so as to stop them from taking to hawking.”
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In his address, the head of department, enforcement, AEPB, Mr. Segun Olisa advised the hawkers to take advantage of the on-going registration of hawkers in the FCT and ensure they are captured in the exercise.
Olusa, who was represented by Mrs. Comfort Okoh, disclosed that the board was already collaborating with the urban and regional affairs department to secure a strategic position to build an informal market for hawkers in the FCT.
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