Anambra Government is to establish mobile courts to try defaulters of street trading, construction of unapproved street stalls and littering of the environment in the state.
Mr Douglas Okafor, the Managing Director, Operation Clean and Healthy Anambra (OCHA Brigade) made the disclosure while briefing newsmen in Awka on Tuesday.
Okafor said that the agency had regularly advised the people to dismantle shanties, illegal structures to decongest traffic and to stop unapproved public trading but the practice had continued.
“In some cases, when you confiscate their goods because of the offense committed, we start to receive calls from all manner of people begging on their behalf.
“As soon as you let them get away, they will still get back to such places.
“Sometimes, in the course of discharging our duties, some of the traders engage my men in physical combat, simply because we do not carry guns,” he said.
He noted that the establishment of mobile courts would help to secure convictions of defaulters and also deter them from street trading, especially along busy roads that were prone to accidents.
The managing director said that the agency had carried out series of sensitisation and awareness campaigns on the need for people to obey the directives against street trading and unapproved construction of stalls along the road.
“So, if anyone is found guilty, he or she would be made to face the wrath of the law. They may be incarcerated for some days, sometimes a week or even a month depending on the decision of the court,” he added.
He said that apart from instant prosecution of offenders by the mobile courts, the state government had also elected to try defaulters at Courts 2 and 4 of the state judiciary complex, Awka.
Okafor, therefore, advised traders and commuters to desist from disposing refuse on the roads, adding that failure to heed the directive on street trading would result in harassment and prosecution. (NAN)
