Board raids FCT hawkers, destroys wares

The Abuja Environmental Protection Board (AEPB) on Saturday raided illegal hawkers in the FCT, burning articles worth millions of naira.

Items that were burnt include second-hand clothes, shoes and other products, seized from hawkers in different parts of the FCT.

Speaking on the development, the Director of the AEPB, Alhaji Isa Shuaibu, said the action was to serve as deterrence to other illegal hawkers.

Shuaibu explained that the burning of the articles was to prevent likely allegation that workers in the board had converted the items to their personal use.

“We came out as part of our routine raid in different parts of the capital city and found hawkers on streets and in our usual efforts to apprehend them, they ran away leaving these items.

“We are burning them to serve as deterrent to other hawkers as they have refused to comply with our campaign against illegal hawking.

“We have no option than to burn these items to avoid possible allegation of converting them for our personal use.

While decrying the hawking of sachet water, Shuaibu said the board would soon clamp down on the hawkers to avoid indiscriminate littering of the streets with cellophanes.

He, however, commended the enforcement squad division of the board for the reduction in street hawking and begging.

The director said that the waste recycling project of the FCT Administration would soon be completed, saying that the plants were be cited in Nyanya, Apo and Kubwa. (NAN)