Plateau State Government has donated assorted items confiscated from recalcitrant traders trading in unauthorized places within Jos, the state capital, to the inmates of the Nigerian Correctional Service, Jos Custodial Centre and the Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) in Barakin Ladi local government area of the state.
Speaking with the newsmen shortly after the donation to the correctional centre, the General Manager of the Jos Metropolitan Development Board (JMDB), Arch. Hart Bankat, said that the traders have to pay for disobedience to the government Executive Order 003.
He emphasised that the state government will not be deterred in any form towards ensuring the state capital and its environs regain their beauty and esthetic value. He however debunked the notion that there was no sufficient information between the government and the traders before the exercise.
“Apart from adequate notification, the government equally provided alternative markets for them within the metropolis.
“They are just being stubborn and trying to test the will of the government. The Executive Order is very clear, and as you can see, we are here to demonstrate the action of the law by donating the item seized to the correctional centre, and from here we are proceeding to the IDP camp to donate the other items.
“We are more than ever determined to ensure that Plateau is beautiful, and we are doing whatever we can to ensure that we deliver on the mandate of His Excellency, Governor Caleb Muftwang. The traders have been adequately relocated, and the government has been magnanimous enough to provide alternatives for them to ply their businesses.
Speaking earlier, the State Commissioner of Information and Communications, Hon. Musa Ashom, said the confiscation was in line with Executive Order 003 which prohibited illegal trading and indiscriminate parking of vehicles and buildings without approval.
He said the goods being donated were those seized from the traders who did not comply with the Executive Order, adding that the traders have remained adamant about leaving the unauthorized places they were plying their trades, hence the reason their wares were confiscated.
“And we want to use this moment to sound a warning to those who think they are above the law that if they are willing to donate their goods, we are willing to take them to the IDP camps and to the correctional centres”
On the allegation that the traders were not adequately brief before the exercise, the Commissioner declared: “Executive order was signed on the 1 March this year, from the day it was signed we have sustained publicity. We’ve sat down with them over 30 times, and we engaged them. We’ve even engaged religious bodies. We’ve sat down with Jamaatir Nasiri Islam, with the Christian Association of Nigeria and even the people in the markets themselves, in their clusters, they cannot lay claim that they don’t know these things.
“What I’m saying is factual. I have been part of the meetings and the general manager of JMDB and other stakeholders. We’ve sat down with them even in Government House, and there was a committee led by the secretary of the government of the state, Architect Samuel Jatau. We discussed extensively and we told them that executive order is here to stay”
The Deputy Controller, Nigerian Correctional Service, Jos Custodial Centre, Ponyak Nandang thanked the state government for the donation adding that the items donated will go a long way in addressing some of the issues confronting the inmates.
Some of the items seized were assorted second-hand clothes, sneakers shoes, slippers, and canvases among others.
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