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A Peoples Democratic Party presidential candidate, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, has called for a debate, on the economy, among all the presidential aspirants on the economy.Photo Atiku ? this man looks like a Hitman sha



Abubakar, a former vice-President, made the call after submitting his nomination form at the PDP national secretariat on Tuesday in Abuja.



The Adamawa State- born politician said the economy should be the main issue in the 2011 election campaigns.



“The issue of economic recovery for Nigeria cannot be a matter of wishful thinking nor of rhetoric. It is a subject for rigorous analyses and provision of well-thought, viable, practicable and sustainable strategy,” he said.



Abubakar said that all aspirants must be able to tell Nigerians how they intended to confront the challenges of the economy and reposition it for the benefit of all at the shortest possible time.



He said, “Of all the aspirants that have declared interest in the presidential election, I consider myself the most qualified to address the daunting economic challenges facing the country.



“I am the only one who has successfully managed a business and you need extensive knowledge of the private sector to combine its potential with the authority of the public sector to address this challenge.”



The former vice-president said his approach to resolving the economic crisis in the country was contained in a 47-page Policy Document he presented on August 15, 2010 while announcing his intention to contest the 2011 presidential poll.



He said, “We are faced with a job crisis of monumental proportions. Unless we evolve strategies to dealing with the teeming population of young people churned out almost on a daily basis, we may risk the destruction of the next generation.



“If we fail to channel the energies of this huge population, they could be a potent force for instability and social unrest.”



Abubakar, however, stunned journalists when he said that he was not aware that the President had declared his intention to vie for the PDP ticket.



“I didn’t see it (declaration). Honestly, I didn’t watch it,” he said.



Twenty seven out of the 28 PDP governors were among thousands of people that attended Jonathan’s presidential declaration at the Eagle Square on Saturday in Abuja. The event was shown live by some public and private television stations nationwide.



On the reported move by some politicians to produce a consensus presidential candidate among the Northern aspirants, Abubakar said, “There is a process for the emergence of a consensus candidate in the North. It shows that North is even more united if “they” agree to bring out a consensus candidate.”



He also said he was not aware of the support that Jonathan was getting from the northern states.



Reacting to the challenge, the Presidential Adviser to Jonathan on National Assembly Matters, Senator Mohammed Abba-Aji, said the President was ready for such a debate.



“We are ready for it (debate) anytime. The President has talked about all the aspects of the economy when he declared. If they want more, we are ready for them,” he said.



Another aspirant, who is also the Kwara State Governor, Dr. Bukola Saraki, also expressed readiness for the debate.



“We are ready for the debate. That is what we have been calling for. Without such an issue-based debate, we will not be able to get the best candidate. Saraki is ready for it,” one of the governor’s aides, Mr. Billy Adedamola, said.
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The Federal Capital Territory Ministerial Task Force on Sunday arrested a retired director in one of the federal ministries for allegedly patronising a commercial sex worker on a street in Abuja. The task force was constituted by the FCT Minister, Senator Bala Muhammed, to clear Abuja’s streets of commercial sex workers, after the expiration of the ultimatum given to them to quit the city or face prosecution. Also arrested along with the director were 60 commercial sex workers, who were picked up at different spots in the city during a major raid that lasted about five hours, the News Agency of Nigeria reports. During the exercise, the team raided areas such as Lagos Street in Garki 11, Rita Lori, Gimbia Street, Ibiza and Wuse Zone 4, especially opposite Sheraton Hotel, as well as Ademola Adetokunbo Crescent, Wuse 2, among others. The retired director was arrested on Gimbia Street, Garki 11, where he was allegedly sighted negotiating with a call girl for about five minutes.. NAN reports that as he was negotiating with the commercial sex worker, he had no idea that members of the task force were standing in front of his Toyota RAV4 Jeep, which had tinted glass. Upon his arrest, the unnamed man claimed that the lady was his daughter. At Wuse Police Station, he changed the story, claiming that she was his fiancee. He was, however, furious at the police station and accused the FCT Minister of going beyond his limits. “When I was a director, I knew Bala (FCT minister) then. He was a deputy director. How come now he wants to decide how we live our social life in the FCT? “Bala should concentrate on the Abuja Master Plan and forget about the sexual lives of residents,” he said. However, there was a twist to his fate when he attempted to call his wife on the telephone to contact his lawyer. Commercial sex workers, who were listening to his conversation on the phone, interjected, shouting, “Madam, no mind your husband, na asewo he come look for wey dem arrest am.” His wife immediately terminated the call, NAN reports. One of the call girls, who gave her name as Kemi, an indigene of Kogi, told journalists that she had contacted a senator, whom she described as her “regular customer.” She said he had expressed readiness to secure her freedom. But immediately she told the senator to hurry up because journalists were interviewing her, he switched off his phone. NAN reports that relatives of the detained prostitutes, who flooded Wuse Police Station, instantly withdrew to the main entrance of the Wuse General Hospital on sighting journalists covering the spectacle. Most pathetic among the arrested call girls were three pregnant ladies. They were said to be carrying pregnancies between two and four months old. They lamented that their boyfriends denied the pregnancies leaving them with no option than to fend for themselves and their unborn babies. The ladies were dragged before the Abuja Environmental Mobile Court but the presiding judge granted them bail as first-time offenders. He warned warning that he might not be so lenient the second time they were caught and brought before the court. The 60 ladies, however, expressed their willingness to be rehabilitated and trained by the FCT minister. They also filled rehabilitation forms, while promising to quit the trade.
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PHOTO: R-L: NIGERIA ACTING PRESIDENT DR GOODLUCK JONATHAN WITH CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR AFTER THE INTERVIEW AT HIS WESTIN GRAND HOTEL SUITE. IMAGE: CNN.

CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR: Tonight, we have Nigeria's acting president, Goodluck Jonathan, leader of Africa's most populous nation and its biggest oil exporter. 

.

Good evening, everyone. I'm Christiane Amanpour, and welcome to our program. 



Nigeria's acting president, Goodluck Jonathan, is in Washington for the nuclear security summit, and he gave us his first interview since assuming power. He took office in February after President Umaru Yar'Adua had been languishing from a mysterious illness since last November. 



And within weeks, he's had to deal with a new explosion of violence in a long-running land dispute near the city of Jos in which hundreds of people have been killed. And at the same time, he's faced an insurgency in the oil-rich delta region, fueled by small arms imported from the West. 



And when he met the U.S. president, Barack Obama, at the White House this week, Goodluck Jonathan was urged to tackle election reform and corruption. I sat down with the acting president after that meeting, and it's the first time he's given an interview to anyone since taking office. 



AMANPOUR: Can I ask you first, what an extraordinary name. How did "Goodluck" come to be your name?

GOODLUCK JONATHAN, ACTING PRESIDENT OF NIGERIA: I don't know. I have to ask my father. (LAUGHTER)



AMANPOUR: You don't know? 



JONATHAN: No.



AMANPOUR: Have you had good luck? And do you think you'll need more than good luck to face down the incredible array of challenges that's on your plate? 



JONATHAN: Well, the issue of good luck, I don't really believe that the good luck is an issue. But as the president, I've been facing myriad of (ph) challenges. What some people will attribute to good luck could have been disastrous under some circumstances. 



AMANPOUR: Well, let me ask you this. You are now Acting President, because the President, Mr. Yar'Adua, is unwell. 



JONATHAN: Yes. 



AMANPOUR: Have you seen him since he has come back from his medical absence in Saudi Arabia? 



JONATHAN: No, I have not seen him. 



AMANPOUR: Why not? 



JONATHAN: Well, when somebody is seriously ill, either the president or a citizen of Nigeria, and by virtue of being a president is a public figure, but still when you are seriously ill, we would respect the opinion of the family. And in the thinking of the family is that (inaudible) insulate him from (ph) most of the key actors in government (ph). 

I have not seen him. The Senate president (ph) has not seen him, Speaker of the House of Representatives has not seen him, and other senior government officials. 


AMANPOUR: Doesn't that cause, when all the senior members of government, including yourself -- doesn't that cause anxiety amongst the people? 



JONATHAN: Yes, it does. It does. Obviously, it does, but we cannot over-influence his family's thinking. 



AMANPOUR: Would you prefer that the family allowed you to visit him? 



JONATHAN: Yes, of course. But I will not want to force. 



AMANPOUR: What is his actual state of health? This also is a mystery. 



JONATHAN: I can't say exactly. It's only the medical doctors that can. 



AMANPOUR: Have they told you? 



JONATHAN: No, they haven't. 



AMANPOUR: Have they made any public statements? 



JONATHAN: Not quite. Not now. At the beginning, yes, but he left for Saudi Arabia, I think in the second week or so or within the first week we are told that he has acute pericarditis. After that, no other statement has been issued. 



AMANPOUR: So if he can receive religious leaders, why can he not receive at least the Acting President who's acting in his name? 



JONATHAN: Well, religious leaders are there for (inaudible) blessings. But probably that is why they asked the religious leaders to go and pray for him. We are a very, very religious society. 



AMANPOUR: Do you believe that those around him -- his family, his loyalists -- are trying to undermine you or your new cabinet or your efforts as acting president? 



JONATHAN: I wouldn't say they were trying to undermine me, because the laws of the land are very clear. 



AMANPOUR: Do you think he will ever come back to government? 



JONATHAN: I can't say that. It's difficult for any of us as mortals to say so. 



AMANPOUR: So you are now Acting President, and you have essentially a year, because elections will be held this time 2011. 



JONATHAN: Yes. 



AMANPOUR: What is your most pressing issue? 



JONATHAN: The most pressing issue for Nigeria now, in terms of basic infrastructure, is power. What outside power. 


AMANPOUR: You mean electricity? 


JONATHAN: Electricity. But outside that, what is central to the minds of Nigerians now is an election that their votes will count, free and fair elections, because we've been accused of a country that our elections somehow questioned. And I promise Nigerians that they will surely get that, and I've done some experiments. The next thing that Nigerians get worried about is the issue of corruption. You know we've been accused of people who have privilege position in government amassing wealth at the expense of society. So they expect us to take these two issues seriously. 



AMANPOUR: So what can you do to take those issues seriously? Obviously, the issue of good governance, of free elections, free of corruption is central, and you heard the United States has also said just now that you must remove the head of the election commission, Mr. Maurice Iwu. Will you do that? 


JONATHAN: You see, the issue of the -- the electoral body -- the issue is that whether the president electoral body -- we called an Independent Electoral Commission, INEC -- can conduct free and fair election or not. And I told them that, yes, they can, because I have done it with the same people. 



But issue of the people is INEC, I told them that, look, between now and ending of June, most of the officials at the national level -- they're called commissioners -- their tenure will end, and we're going to review them on individual merit. And if some people still cannot go back, we have to replace them. 



AMANPOUR: Do you think he will stay or will he be removed? That's something that the U.S.. 

(CROSSTALK)



JONATHAN: ... among -- among the commissioners at the center that their tenure will end by June this year. And we are going to review...



AMANPOUR: So he will be out by June? 



JONATHAN: All of them we'll review. And any one of them that we feel is not competent definitely...



AMANPOUR: Do you feel that Mr. Iwu is competent? 



JONATHAN: (inaudible) I know that this question continues to come up. What I've said is the issue is beyond Mr. Iwu. 



AMANPOUR: I know. But I'm specifically talking about him, because it's come up in your meetings with U.S. officials. 



JONATHAN: Yes, I agree that within the period that he's chairing INEC, there are quite a number of controversies. I agree. There are quite a number of concerns. There are quite a number of controversies. There are a number -- the perception is that the feeling back home and in the international community is that he cannot conduct a free and fair election. 



So I know what I'm telling you, that this (inaudible) Iwu, I'm not trying to hold brief for him. The Iwu we are talking about has conducted free elections. These past three elections were credible. So the issue is -- because the issue is beyond Iwu (inaudible) set up an electoral system and our regulations and laws that will make sure that anybody who is appointed to that office should be able to conduct acceptable elections. And that is my focus. 



AMANPOUR: OK. Will you run in 2011? Will you present yourself as a presidential candidate? 



JONATHAN: For now, I don't want to think about it. I came in as the vice president (ph) to run with President Yar'Adua. Of course, getting close to -- to period of election he took ill, and I have to take over under somewhat controversial circumstances. Only last week, I reconstituted the cabinet. So let us see Nigeria move forward first. If the country is not moving, what -- what will I tell Nigerians I want to contest for? Yes, I'm a politician and I would be interested in politics, since I'm still relatively young. 



AMANPOUR: But the -- the reason I ask you is because...



JONATHAN: Yes, but I cannot even tell myself now. I must assess myself. 



AMANPOUR: I understand. 



JONATHAN: You cannot just wake up and say you want to contest an election to be the president of a country. First of all, you must say, can you really bring the dividends of (inaudible) three months after which we review ourselves. And I used to tell people, look, if I'm not satisfied with what is happening (inaudible) election? 



AMANPOUR: Well, I'm asking you because there is this informal agreement amongst various locations north and south which has been closely followed about taking turns at the presidency and that power must shift. For instance, Mr. Yar'Adua, who is from the north, has not even finished one term, and he should have a second term, according to your informal agreement. You're from the south. 



JONATHAN: Yes. 



AMANPOUR: So it's kind of not your turn, so that's why I'm asking you -- and everybody's very interested as to whether you will present yourself for elections. 



JONATHAN: Yes, those interests are there. I was part of a lot of meetings in the ruling party (inaudible) even (inaudible) within the ruling party (inaudible) but, basically, the issue of whether I will contest or not is it (inaudible) I used to say that, if I contest elections, the elections in Nigeria are not only the presidency election, et cetera (inaudible) of Nigeria. 



There are options for me if I want to contest election. I recontest as a vice president to anybody. I can contest as a president, because the laws allow me. But that is not my own priority now. My priority now is to see how, within this little period left, what impact can we show? 



AMANPOUR: But let me just get something straight. You say that you can contest and it's possible that you will contest, yes? 



JONATHAN: It is, of course. 



AMANPOUR: Yes? It's possible that you will contest then? 



JONATHAN: These are options. I don't want to think about it. 



AMANPOUR: One other question on elections. Mr. Ibrahim Babangida, former Nigerian military leader who seized power, essentially, and ruled for about eight years in the late '80s and '90s, says that he wants to contest them again in 2011. Is that acceptable? 



JONATHAN: He's very free. There is no law stopping Babangida from contesting. Babaginda and any other military head of state are very free to contest. 



AMANPOUR: What would that say about modern Nigeria? 



JONATHAN: It depends on the people, and that's why we say that -- yes, it depends on -- I will say that the votes of the people must count. Babangida is a leader that has been head of state for about eight years plus, just like you said. Babangida has his friends. He has done some good jobs, even though some people may see -- nobody will be a leader that who will not see you from both left and right. But as an individual, Babangida is very free to contest the presidency. Other military leaders are interested in contesting the presidency, not only Babangida, and they are all free. On that 11th day, Nigerian votes will count, and not me.

AMANPOUR: Mr. Acting President, one of your big challenges, as well, is to try to re-energize the peace process, the amnesty process in, in fact, your homeland, isn't it, the Niger Delta area? 



JONATHAN: (inaudible)



AMANPOUR: Exactly. So there was a whole system set in place, but it seems to be fraying, and there's a lot of concern, particularly given how vital it is as an oil-producing part of the world. What are you going to do about that? 



JONATHAN: Well, the amnesty process (inaudible) what's happened is that people don't really understand the total concept of the amnesty. The amnesty is divided into three phases, the disarmament phase. That is the phase where militants surrender their weapons. Then rehabilitation phase and reintegration phase. 



Some of these militants have been in that armed struggle for a very long time. And when young people are involved in carrying weapons against the state for very long time, there is a tendency for them to go into some forms of aberration-type behavior (inaudible) excessive alcohol or some of them they even (inaudible) so you have a process that you must follow. 



After the disarmament, the next is rehabilitation. You have to rehabilitate them. Then you have to properly integrate them into the society. So during the process of rehabilitation, you must re-orientate their thinking and make them to learn some skills that will enable them and a decent living through the proper reintegration process. 

What's now -- we are trying to make the best -- up to this time, we have not gotten the kind of (inaudible) but now (inaudible) we (inaudible) Niger Delta before the minister of defense, who handled the disarmament, was also coordinating the rehabilitation, and that was giving us a lot of problems.

But now we are (inaudible) rehabilitation. The disarmament was the military exercise, so the minister of defense (inaudible) so the case of rehabilitation and reintegration has now moved into the hands of this president adviser to the president on the Niger Delta. We have a good program. 



So by the first batch of trainees (inaudible) or so are going to move to their camps in the crossover state (ph) by the third week of April, so we have to do them in batches. The total number of militants are about 20,191, little more than 20,000 (inaudible) so it's a lot of youth. And it's not easy to manage those number of people. 



AMANPOUR: What about Jos, which we just saw an explosion of violence there between Muslim and Christian? What can you do about that? 



JONATHAN: No, no, no, it's not a problem between Muslim and Christians. That is quite wrong, actually. The problem of Jos is -- Jos occupies a plateau, quite a high land area in Nigeria. And that's an area where a number of people settle outside the indigenous population (ph). In fact, even when Lagos was a federal capital territory, most -- most Europeans who came to Nigeria, they preferred to stay in Jos. 



Because of the elevation, the temperature is very low. It's like a sub-temperate climate where the temperature sometimes could drop up to minus two. No part of Nigeria that (inaudible) well, because of that climate and the mining of tin and others (inaudible) within that area. 



So there's a lot of settlers from the southeastern part of Nigeria, from the southwestern part of Nigeria, and from the extreme north, so most of these settlers now play big in the economy, local economy. So the indigenous population feels that they have been excluded from the economy, and that has been bringing conflict from the early '60s. 



AMANPOUR: But what can you do about it? 



JONATHAN: Of course, we have (inaudible) in terms of what we are doing, we are discussing with the traditional rulers (ph), we are discussing with religious leaders, we are discussing with opinion leaders. That is to appeal to them (ph), and they are responding. 



Of course, we're also providing security, because, first of all, you must provide adequate security to make sure that people don't carry weapons and intimidate or kill others, so that is being done. 

Then we also are appealing to their conscience using their leaders, both opinion leaders, both their religious leaders, both traditional leaders. And it is paying off. 



AMANPOUR: It is paying off? 



JONATHAN: Yes. 



AMANPOUR: Do you think that kind of violence will stop? 



JONATHAN: (inaudible) I cannot say it will stop completely, but our commitment is to make sure that it stops. 



AMANPOUR: With issues like Jos or the Niger Delta, with the fact that, as you mentioned yourself, there's a severe power and electricity crisis, and all sorts of other issues, how do you make international investors feel confident? Even kidnappings there are, as you've said yourself, need to stop. 



JONATHAN: Realize Nigeria is a very big country. And some of these issues people raise in the media that makes it look as if the whole country is rampant (ph).

It's not quite so. We have a letter of international investors even in the Niger Delta, you have the oil companies everywhere. Yes, we have these occasional issues of kidnapping, but it doesn't stop (ph). But we are also strengthening the local security system, the police force. We are trying to set up a special fund to make sure that we're strengthening the police to maintain law and order. In addition to making sure that we provide what the people will need and appeal to different groups, to see reason why (inaudible) we are also doing what we think is right to increase the security, because you must secure the area. 



AMANPOUR: You've just had meetings with President Obama. What was the most important issue that you discussed? I know President Obama discussed many things, including the issue of a joint fight against terrorism. 



JONATHAN: Yes, of course...



AMANPOUR: It was the Nigerian youth who tried to set himself and set a plane on fire over the United States. 



JONATHAN: Of course, that is an unfortunate incident. But I know you know more than me. When that issue came up, it was a global issue, and everybody traced the history of a young man. This man -- this young man left Nigeria long ago, and he got indoctrinated in the West. 



AMANPOUR: But do you nonetheless think it's an issue that has to be combated, terrorism? 



JONATHAN: Of course. Nigeria -- you know that the Non-Proliferation Treaty, Nigeria is one of the countries that signed it. We believe that the whole globe must be peaceful. We cannot (inaudible) cannot encourage that. Nigerians are not terrorists. We know the problem as African leaders. We are suffering from the use of small arms and light weapons. In fact, in Africa, the use of small arms and light weapons is more devastating to us than even the issue of nuclear terrorism, because Africans have died from small arms and light weapons, more than the nuclear terrorism, because most of these weapons used in the former Soviet Union are no longer relevant, and they've all been shipped into Africa. 



Most of the small arms and light weapons manufactured in America and other -- in European countries are shipped down to Africa, and this is a cost of most of this crisis we're having, this insecurity we're having, so we totally support. 



AMANPOUR: You've got 12 months, essentially, to enact the reforms you're talking about, bringing about the changes, whether it's to election law, whether it's to the issue of peace. How much do you really think you can achieve in this short period of time? 



JONATHAN: We'll do our best. Some of this (inaudible) human issues that you can achieve significantly, like we talk about electoral reforms and conducting clean elections. We don't need 100 years to do that. We don't even need a year to do that, because they're human factors (ph). And a few months, we should be able to set up a system that can conduct free and fair elections. But all that is like basic infrastructure that needs a period that -- that you conceptualize it, you figure out the design, you figure the planning, environmental assessment, and so on before you the physical execution of the projects. Those ones will take some time. 



But still, people will see that you've set up a clear roadmap. If you think the most challenging infrastructure that we have, the power infrastructure, the electric power infrastructure, we must set up a clear agenda that people will know that we are moving forward and we have milestones that we can benchmark you. 



Definitely a government that -- we have 12 months, and especially -- especially it's an election period. Immediately after elections, government’s activities tend to slow down because of, of course, they are key positions that are in government. 



So we have that kind of a challenge. We don't really even have 12 months. We can't even claim to have 5 months. But what we promise is that within the shortest possible time, we take (inaudible) cannot take everything. We take the things that we believe we can leave some footprints, but most importantly for Nigerians to see that we are -- we are serious and we are committed. 



AMANPOUR: On that note, Acting President Goodluck Jonathan, thank you very much for joining us. 



JONATHAN: Thank you. 



AMANPOUR: And that was our conversation with Acting President Goodluck Jonathan. And that's it for us now today.

Courtesy of CNN.

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I guess the isle just got tired of it all !

NEW DELHI – For nearly 30 years, India and Bangladesh have argued over control of a tiny rock island in the Bay of Bengal. Now rising sea levels have resolved the dispute for them: the island's gone.
New Moore Island in the Sunderbans has been completely submerged, said oceanographer Sugata Hazra, a professor at Jadavpur University in Calcutta. Its disappearance has been confirmed by satellite imagery and sea patrols, he said.

"What these two countries could not achieve from years of talking, has been resolved by global warming," said Hazra.

Scientists at the School of Oceanographic Studies at the university have noted an alarming increase in the rate at which sea levels have risen over the past decade in the Bay of Bengal.

Until 2000, the sea levels rose about 3 millimeters (0.12 inches) a year, but over the last decade they have been rising about 5 millimeters (0.2 inches) annually, he said.

Another nearby island, Lohachara, was submerged in 1996, forcing its inhabitants to move to the mainland, while almost half the land of Ghoramara island was underwater, he said. At least 10 other islands in the area were at risk as well, Hazra said.

"We will have ever larger numbers of people displaced from the Sunderbans as more island areas come under water," he said.

Bangladesh, a low-lying delta nation of 150 million people, is one of the countries worst-affected by global warming. Officials estimate 18 percent of Bangladesh's coastal area will be underwater and 20 million people will be displaced if sea levels rise 1 meter (3.3 feet) by 2050 as projected by some climate models.

India and Bangladesh both claimed the empty New Moore Island, which is about 3.5 kilometers (2 miles) long and 3 kilometers (1.5 miles) wide. Bangladesh referred to the island as South Talpatti.

There were no permanent structures on New Moore, but India sent some paramilitary soldiers to its rocky shores in 1981 to hoist its national flag.

The demarcation of the maritime boundary — and who controls the remaining islands — remains an open issue between the two South Asian neighbors, despite the disappearance of New Moore, said an official in India's foreign ministry, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak on international disputes.

Bangladesh officials were not available for comment Wednesday.
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Task force raids Computer Village

Armed policemen and men of the Kick Against Indiscipline squad, under the auspices of Lagos State Special Task Force (Environmental Unit) on Wednesday raided the Computer Village, Ikeja, and arrested traders selling on the streets.The task force also impounded the traders' goods and took them to their office at Alausa.Our correspondent learnt that as at 3p.m. on Wednesday, the task force members were still patrolling every part of the market to ensure compliance.A shop owner, Mr. Chinonso Valentine, said that the cost of acquiring shops in the market was very expensive, as landlords had allegedly given their shops to developers who charged them exorbitantly.According to him, a shop at the computer village costs nothing less than N2.5m to acquire, stressing that the amount is for only two years.He said because of the high cost of procuring shops at the market, many people who could not do so resorted to selling on the street.He also said that it was not easy to get land space on the street as miscreants, landlords and council officials cashed in on their predicament to exploit them.He said that each trader paid about N80,000 to mount a show-glass.Another trader, who did not want his name in print, appealed to the government to provide a place for them, saying that displacing them without rehabilitating them would do more harm than good.He asked, "Now that they don't want us to sell here, what else do they want us to do? Does the government want us to steal? How do they want us to survive? The earlier they address our problem, the better."The Public Relations Officer, Lagos State Environmental Task Force, Tayo Afagba, confirmed the raid, saying that the traders had been warned many times to stop selling on the streets.Afagba said that in December 2008, the market was shut down because of the same incident, yet the traders had refused to learn.The PRO, who said that the raiding started on Tuesday, stressed that government was against street trading in Lagos, as it obstructed vehicular and human traffic as well as engendering social vices.
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