Nasarawa Bans Street Trading, Hawking

The Task Force charged with relocating traders to the Muhammadu Buhari International Market, Karu in Nasarawa State has banned trading and hawking along the Keffi-Karu-Abuja expressway, the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) has reported.

The Chairman of the Task Force, Mr Stanley Buba, announced this on Monday in Karu, during a meeting with officials of the Traders and Marketers Association and the National Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW).

Buba, also a Senior Special Assistant to Governor Umaru Almakura, urged traders to move to the Muhammadu Buhari International Market in Karu, to boost sales and improve the state’s revenue base.

“Traders must avoid street trading and hawking; they must move to the market to acquire spaces that will be allocated to them at no cost, on temporary basis.

“When traders move into the market, traffic congestion will be reduced along the Karu-Abuja expressway,” he said.

He warned that defaulters would face the full wrath of the law, and advised the traders to take advantage of the market to improve their business, fight poverty and end unemployment.

Buba said that the ban would take full effect on May 1.

He also warned commercial drivers against parking indiscriminately, saying that anyone caught would be penalised.

The Chairman, Nasarawa State Traders and Marketers Association, Alhaji Shammasu Dantsoho, in a speech at the meeting, promised to cooperate with the committee to ensure sanity in the market area.

He also assured the committee that his union would educate and enlighten its members on government policies and the need to support them. (NAN).