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Fear of demolition grips Ikoku traders in Port Harcourt

Countless youths will lose their livelihoods if the planned demolitions go ahead.

News that Governor Chubuike Ameachi will soon send his bulldozers into the Ikoku axis of Port Harcourt has created a atmosphere of fear among the many traders doing business in the area.

The planned demolitions have unsettled residents and businesses following a number of similar demolitions in resent months.

Ikoku is a bustling trading area where hundreds of small mechanics workshops are located employing countless skilled and semi-skilled local people.

The traders were under threat of re-location under the previous Governor of Rivers State, Dr. Peter Odili, but this did not ever materialise allowing the traders to carry on their work.

However the new administration has vowed to return Port-Harcourt to it's 'garden city' status and has said that such a market is not suitable at its present position. Other reasons cited for moving the traders on is the lack of sanitation and the continued traffic jams in the area which hold up commuters on their way to work.

The government of Port Harcourt has been arbitrarily demolishing buildings in the city that do not conform with the building codes and plans of the state. Under these stipulations huge swathes of the city could be destroyed as building regulations are poorly implemented and a majority of people live in temporary, unrecognised settlements in shacks and huts.

The commissioner of housing Mr. Marshall Uwom has said the government is determined to build low-cost housing to alleviate the suffering of the people in the state to replace the slums and shanties, a promise often made but rarely followed through effectively, if at all.

Most of the Ikuko traders are worried that this Governor may well finish off the work of the previous one and finally flatten Ikuko. "We are very apprehensive of the information we are getting that sooner or later this place will be demolished", One trader said, "this is where we do business for years now and if destroyed it will affect our business badly."

As they carry on with the work they have been doing in the area for years, the fear of demolition hovers in the air in Ikoku and most of the traders do not know how long it will be before the bulldozers come. Often communities get only a few days notice to move on before the area is forcefully cleared.

The Ikoku traders, under the umbrella of The Motor Spare Parts Union of Nigeria, have appealed to the government to give them certificates of occupancy of the land and to shelve the planed demolition saying countless youths will lose their livelihoods if it goes ahead.

The union also expressed their gratitude to SDN and the International community for their interest and willingness to promote the cause of the less privileged in Nigeria saying that they hope our involvement can help to make a difference.