Delta State Government Clears  Out Illegal Traders Operating Around Asaba Airport Runway

Governor Okowa

By WILLIAM ANAEBONAM, Abuja

Over 500 itinerant traders and shanty owners within the runway of Asaba Airport were in the early hours of Thursday cleared out by taskforce officials of the Delta State Ministry of Environment.

In what appeared to be a melodrama, the taskforce officials  under the supervision of the State Commissioner for Environment, John Nani, accompanied by armed policemen, descended on the traders, destroying hundreds of makeshifts erected within the Airport.

Speaking to OPTIMUM TIMES, the commissioner said: “The state government had earlier served the traders quit notice, instead of relocating they started erecting makeshifts along the Airport runway, such is illegal activity, we are acting on the mandate of the state Governor, Dr. Ifeanyi Okowa to demolish all illegal structure within Asaba Airport runway, and around, we have no apology for our actions”.

Expressing worries over what he described as inimical hazards the traders’ illegal activities pose to the environment and the sensitive nature of the Airport, the Commissioner said that the traders littered the Airport with emptied pure water sachets, including used tissue papers, disclosing the traders’ negligence to comply accordingly with the quit notice they were earlier served, informed the action of the taskforce officials.

He said: “Despite earlier warning and an extended period of grace, the traders in an affront to the law, commenced their business activities” adding that such acts of insubordination gave rise to the raid.

Nani explained that the illegitimate occupants have converted facility of the Airport into their private Estate, and market place, thus accommodating dissidents and persons with questionable character, including commercial sex workers the opportunity to ply their trade.

Some of the traders whose properties were destroyed by the taskforce officials, told OPTIMUM TIMES that they refused to relocate because they have no other means of livelihood, and government are not ready to provide employment for their children, or their husbands.

The leader of the traders, Mrs. Edith Ndukwe said; ‘we have nothing else to be doing, this is where we eke a living for our family, our children, no employment, where do we go from here, the taskforce officials destroyed our properties worth millions of naira”.