Abuja issues 74-hour ultimatum to hawkers around Wuse market

The Abuja Environmental Protection Board, AEPB, has issued a 74-hour quit order to hawkers within and outside Wuse market.

This is contained in a statement signed by Joe Ukairo, Head of Information and Outreach Programme of the Board.

The AEPB said the hawkers should either evacuate within the specified timeframe or face sanctions.

The board said for the past three weeks, it engaged in an exercise to clear the city of street beggars and destitute people.

”Most streets of the Federal Capital City have been raided by our enforcement squad and quite a large number of beggars and destitute people have been arrested and taken to the Abuja Rehabilitation Centre in Bwari.

”The renewed drive and strategy comprising surprise and undercover operations, is already yielding positive results,” the AEPB said in the statement.

The board said the operation would be sustained with a view to sanitising the nation’s capital city.

The AEPB, through its enforcement squad, had severally raided and arrested many hawkers and street beggars within Abuja.

The arrested hawkers get their items confiscated while beggars are taken to the rehabilitation centre in Bwari.

The board had also decried the accumulation of refuse outside the market environment, which it attributed to hawking activities outside the popular Wuse market.

NAN