The Lagos State Government should without further delay enforce the law banning street trading in the state, the Chairperson (Iyaloja) of Obalende Market on Lagos Island, Alhaja Jokotade Logun, said on Thursday.
“Street trading is a menace to the society and the government should take action without delay to ban it,” Logun said at the weekly sanitation exercise and the deratisation held at the market.
The News Agency of Nigeria reports that the weekly exercise introduced by the state government also featured fumigation of the markets across the state against vector-borne diseases including Lassa fever.
To achieve this, the state government in partnership with a private organization, Phosgard Fumigant Limited, had launched an operation: “Kill rats, make money.”
The project is aimed at depopulating rats in public places, residential areas and markets using hi-tech chemicals and equipment.
Speaking to NAN on the exercise, Logun said the government could make the project more successful by enforcing the ban on street trading to ensure food safety.
Logun said: “Now that our markets are now free from vector-induced diseases such as Lassa fever, we want the government to help us eradicate the menace of street trading.
“We want government to stop paying a lip service to this campaign against street trading and enforce the law prohibiting it.
“We want our governor to know that what we have observed is that those on the streets are not part of this fumigation exercise.
“This is a scheme meant for us to make our markets free from Lassa fever outbreak, but street trading could sabotage the effort.”
Logun stressed that food items purchased at the roadside could not be certified fit for consumption, describing buying of food items in the traffic as dangerous and injurious to human health.
She said: “Food items bought on the streets are not safe for consumption and cannot be certified fit because those selling on the streets often put their wares and the food items on the drainage.
“The open drainage system are breeding rats and the rats often have access to the food items which is very dangerous because anything they buy on the road could be ascribed to a nearby market.
“On the contrary, our main market is now free from any outbreak of Lassa fever, but the ones on the streets we cannot vouch for them as diseases can be contracted from them.
“Government should bring those selling on the streets into the main markets not just for economic reasons, but for safety of lives and for a successful fight against Lassa fever.”
Also speaking, the leader of Hausa Market Men and Women at Obalende Market, Alhaji Ibrahim Aliyu, lauded the state government’s initiative in derating the markets using an NGO to prevent economic losses.
Aliyu said: “I feel so happy about this exercise and I also commend the state government. This is the third time they are coming to fumigate the market and in the process, many rats were killed.
“During the first exercise, there were many rats killed and loads of them were evacuated. Today, there are not so many rats.
“What this means is that the exercise has been hugely successful in its aim at depopulating the rats.
“Before, we have been having nightmares about these rats that come in their numbers to eat our fruits, but now, we have a more effective way of dealing with them.”
Aliyu, a fruit seller, said he had in the past suffered economic losses as a result of rats invasion, noting that with the exercise, the problem had been fully addressed.
He said: “Apart from the economic loss we suffer as a result of these rats eating our commodities, there is also a health implication like an outbreak of Lassa fever which is deadlier.”
Oluwasegun Benson, the Chief Executive Officer of Phosgard, advised market women and men not to hand pick dead rats, saying it is dangerous.
Benson said: “The market people should not keep the rats, they should rather wait for our Evacuation Officers to remove the rats and also for the impact assessment of the operation.
“There is need to be careful when handling those rats that died as a result of the fumigation, although the exercise is safe enough for everybody.
“The exercise has been largely successful; this is a proactive measure by the government to rid the state of vector-borne diseases, particularly the dreaded Lassa Fever.”
NAN.
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