Insecurity: Okowa warns residents, traders against harbouring criminals

Insecurity: Okowa warns residents, traders against harbouring criminals

Delta State Governor, Ifeanyi Okowa

…inaugurates farmers market, Gardens in Asaba

DELTA State Governor, Senator Ifeanyi Okowa, yesterday warned residents of the State, particularly traders against harbouring criminals, insisting that it was a source of security risk to the entire state.

Okowa who issued the warning while inaugurating Gardens, farmers’ market with its ancillary facilities of water borehole, toilets, among others sited at the popular Abraka Market at the Asaba axis of the Benin-Onitsha expressway, told shop owners to reciprocate government gesture by taking ownership and protecting the facilities from vandals.

Illegal motor parks, notorious suya spots and brothels had sprung up around the market, making it a breeding ground for criminals.

But the state government through the Delta State Capital Territory Development Agency, DSCTDA reclaimed the area, and converted some parts of it to the farmers’ market and gardens, as part of an effort aimed at transforming the area.

The market, where the majority of non-indigenes especially Nigerians of northern extraction, sell their foodstuffs has been relocated to a government land measuring about 12 hectares near the River Niger Head Bridge.

The Governor who was represented by the State Commissioner for Energy, Mr Basil Ganagana, commended the State Capital Territory Development Agency for its commitment to accomplish the Asaba master plan and beautify the environment.

The Governor who inspected the new market site on the 12 hectares of land,  thanked the Arewa community and other traders for their cooperation during the relocation from the hitherto notorious Abraka area of the metropolis.

Conducting the Governor round the projects, the Director-General of the Agency, Mrs Amaechi Mrakpor, explained that the purpose of the farmers’ market was for residents to buy immediate needs without going too far.

Mrakpor said: “You know there are some petty items that naturally should be allowed. So we got approval for the Smart Delta Farmers’ Market for petty traders to serve a purpose of for instance you do not need to go to the market for your onions and egg for breakfast.

“Here used to be the notorious suya joint and there is where we used to have an illegal motor park. At both places, every criminal thing was going on but we have successfully converted them to give a facelift to the environment.

“The original design of the capital territory has a provision for gardens at every entry point to Asaba. But the miscreants converted them for illegal use.

“So we tried to reactivate them after reclamation, for the original use. We dismantled the illegal motor park. All the miscreants that we hitherto have here have moved on as a result of this beautification”.