A Lagos market leader, the Asoju Oja of Lagos Island East, Mrs Raliat Adebayo, has pleaded with the Lagos State Environmental Sanitation Corps/Kick Against Indiscipline to stop treating traders in the state like criminals by dumping them in ‘Black Maria’ when arrested for alleged infractions.
Adebayo, who represented the Iyaloja-General of Lagos State, Mrs Folasade Tinubu, at the Lagos Central Senatorial District stakeholders’ meeting, said traders who engage in legitimate businesses deserve to be treated with civility by the agency.
The market leader, in a statement on Thursday, was quoted as saying that all the 613 registered markets in the state were “well-coordinated and ready to work with the enforcement agency as long as they carry along the leadership of the state market.”
“The environmental sanitation of all our markets and parking of vehicles around market areas have been tailored towards government regulations. For instance, no market has been found wanting or shut down on Lagos Island for inadequate disposal of waste or unhygienic (practices).
“Even if our members err, you don’t need to dump them in Black Maria because they are not criminals. Rather, get your evidence with the use of gadgets and send it to appropriate quarters for disciplinary actions,” Adebayo said.
She added that some of the traders in the state litter walkways because of the ongoing construction of some markets in the state.
Responding, the Deputy Corps Marshal, Welfare, LAGESC, Adeleke Adeeso, said, “I doubt if we have arrested and put up to four women in Black Maria in the last one year because we know how fragile women are, even though the majority of the traders are women.
“There was no time we operated without a proper abatement notice to markets and we expected such to have been served to the leadership of the markets, but they won’t do it.”
