The Oyo State Government has issued a seven-day ultimatum to street traders across the state to vacate the roadsides or face the weight of the law.
The Commissioner for Environment and Water Resources, Idowu Oyeleke, made this known while featuring Saturday on a programme tagged ‘Bottomline’ on IBR 92.5FM.
Oyeleke said, “We want our actions to be corrective and not necessarily punitive but it is getting to a point where we have to allow the law to run its full course. A warning will precede punishment.
”What we will do is to design a framework which works. It is difficult to identify individuals trading on the streets and you start giving them notice but I have invited most of the market leaders to my office and it is these market leaders that we served to go and talk to those who believe that the only thing to do is to trade on the street.
“For instance, go to Sango and Iwo Road, how do you serve each person selling on the road a notice per head? We have called their leadership, so they will not blame the government when it swings into action.
“Governor Seyi Makinde some few months back, set up an Environment Task Force. We also have Environmental Task Force Tribunal and the objective of this task force is to go round and ensure that people are discouraged from trading on the street and, of course, they have been working.”
The commissioner lamented that some of his men were recently attacked by some street traders while on enforcement duty.
“About days ago, my people were somewhere in Iwo Road to chase people away from the road but what do you find? The people attacked them. A policeman was wounded, his uniform was torn, the environmental officers were beaten, we have to take them to the hospital,” he added.
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