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Ogun to beautify Lagos-Ibadan highway, gives street traders quit notice
Ogun State Governor, Dapo Abiodun has handed down a 21-day ultimatum to all street traders operating on road setbacks along the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway to vacate the road. The order concerns those operating at Kara, Isheri, and Warewa areas of the road more. This was meant to restore environmental sanity to the road.
The state government also said it would demolish all the shanties erected by the street traders in the affected areas for a proper clean-up and then beautify the road setback to complement the reconstruction of the highway by the Federal Government.
According to a statement on Sunday, the state Commissioner for the Environment, Ola Oresanya, disclosed these on behalf of the governor at a recent meeting with community leaders held at the palace of Olofin of Isheri, Oba Sulaiman Bamgbade in Isheri.
The commissioner said the state government decided to dislodge the traders and demolish all shanties after several warnings, abatement notices and other entreaties for them to move to government-approved markets failed.
He also added that aside from the environmental nuisance they constitute, most of their shanties are a security risk to members of the public as they are used as criminal hideouts for street urchins and drug peddlers who rob innocent citizens of their valuables in broad daylight.
He noted that the existence of these shanties not only posed a security threat but also a concern for the hygiene of the people living in the environment as a result of open defecation which can lead to an outbreak of communicable diseases in these communities.
“So, my government will not wait and allow a small group of individuals in the name of trading which is outside approved markets put the safety and health of our decent people at risk,” the commissioner quoted the governor as saying.
Reacting, Oba Bamgbade pledged the commitment of the residents to the government’s initiative to rid the axis of the menace of street traders and criminals.