By Akpan Udo-Inyang
CALABAR -Cross River State Commissioner for Environment has warned traders in Calabar Metropolis against abandoning designated market spaces to display and sell their goods along roadside.
Mr Bassey Mensah , a lawyer, who addressed market leaders in Calabar, Thursday, stressed that such activities contribute significantly to traffic congestion and expose traders, pedestrians and motorists to avoidable accidents.
Mensah, met with the market leaders to deliberate on environmental compliance, market management and measures to keep roads and other public spaces free from unauthorised trading activities.
According to him, roadside trading is also a practice that poses serious threats to free vehicular movement, public safety and orderly market operations.
The Commissioner, urged market leaders to support the government’s efforts to restore order to the metropolis and ensure that commercial activities remain within designated market areas.
“We must get back our environment and restore sanity to our markets,” Mensah said.
He stressed that compliance with environmental and market management regulations was essential to creating safer, cleaner and more organised commercial spaces across Calabar.
The Permanent Secretary in the Ministry, Mrs. Rosemary Onah, decried the unsanitary conditions of some major markets in the metropolis, stressing that the government could no longer condone practices that undermine environmental standards.
Onah reiterated the government’s commitment to ensuring that commercial activities are conducted in accordance with approved regulations, while urging market leaders and traders to cooperate with relevant authorities.
Responding, the Chairman of Marian Market Union, Pastor Asuquo Etim, said market union leaders were not in support of roadside trading, noting that the practice was contrary to the principles and regulations governing organised markets.
He disclosed that there were sufficient stalls within the markets to accommodate traders, adding that many of those operating along the roadsides were not members of the union.
Etim ,therefore, called for the intervention of the Ministry of Environment to address the situation and enforce compliance, stressing the need to protect the integrity of organised markets.