Street hawkers operating in Kaduna, the state capital, have one week to evacuate or risk prosecution, the Kaduna State Government has said.
The General Manager, Kaduna Environmental Protection Authority, Alhaji Sani Aminu, told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), Monday, that government would no longer tolerate the abuse on the environment.
Aminu said that the ultimatum became necessary in view of the recalcitrant attitude of hawkers, who had continued to litter the environment.
He said that the agency would no longer tolerate such environmental abuses which was costing the state so much of tax payers’ money.
“We are overwhelmed by the tonnes of refuse gathered from the streets of which between 60 to 70 per cent emanates from the activities of hawkers in various locations in the metropolis.
“The government is out to enforce all environmental laws, since the state is not a jungle where anybody does what he or she likes,” he said.
He believed that sanitising the streets of the hawkers would help to reduce crime, claiming that some of the hawkers “are into crime but only pretend to be selling products to the public”.
He cited areas where hoodlums disguised as traders and hawkers to include Independence way, Ahmadu Bello way and Station roundabout, all in Kaduna.
Aminu warned that anybody found hawking in the metropolis would be arrested and prosecuted, while the goods seized would be donated to orphanages. [NAN]
