CSOs, lawyer tackle Lagos over street hawkers arrest

Some civil society organisations, the Take It Back Movement and Youth Rights Campaign, have knocked the Lagos State government over the arrest of some street hawkers.

 The National Coordinator of the TIB, Juwon Sanyaolu, in an interview with PUNCH Metro on Thursday, said the government was only criminalising poverty and not solving any environmental problem.

 A statement from the state Ministry of Information on Thursday revealed that in continuation of its efforts to rid the highways of street trading and hawking, the Lagos Environmental Sanitation Corps arrested more than 25 hawkers in syndicated raids across the state.

 The statement quoted the agency’s Corps Marshal, CP Gbemisola Akinpelu (retd.), who disclosed this at the command’s headquarters, Bolade-Oshodi, as saying, “The continuous enforcement activated by the agency against street traders, hawkers have yielded impressive outcomes as arrests and arraignments are made daily by our established mandate to eradicate environmental infractions in the state.

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Akinpelu said 25 arrests were made at Cele, Igando, Iyana-Ejigbo, Ikotun, Iyana-Ipaja, Egbeda, and Agege areas of the state by the agency’s Special Squad, and that the exercise would be continuous.

 “Admonishing environmental defaulters to desist from trading in traffic, on highways, roads, streets, setbacks, lay-bys, kerbs, medians, road verges, drainage slabs, or pedestrian bridges, the Corps Marshal assured that there would be no hiding place for defiant traders in the habit of flouting the state’s environmental laws,” the statement added.

 But reacting, the TIB coordinator, Sanyaolu, said, “This action by the Lagos government is best described as a misplaced priority. It’s sad that rather than solving the challenges of unemployment and overwhelming poverty that drive many people to the streets, it’s like the government is criminalising people for being poor.

“Some of these hawkers are graduates but jobless. It’s rather unfortunate. Drainages should be built to address environmental challenges or decongest the roads by building environmentally-friendly transport systems.”

 On his part, the YRC coordinator, Adaramoye Michael, said the government should rather build modern markets.

 “What is needed is for government to begin the construction of urban marketplaces for traders to access and revamp the existing ones while also making it affordable for poor traders to access. This vicious attack of poor traders is condemnable,” he told PUNCH Metro.

 Human rights lawyer, Festus Ogun, queried the alternatives made available for the hawkers even though roadside trading was prohibited.

 Festus said, “No doubt, street trading is prohibited under extant laws in Lagos. However, we must interrogate the policies of the government.

“What alternatives are in place for these poor traders? I think the government should not only stop arresting them, but they should also find a way to relocate them to appropriate places at lower costs. Punishing them will amount to hitting a sledgehammer on a fly. Remember, laws are made for men and not men made for law.”