Edo traders stage protest, accuse LG of extortion

Traders at the Oba Market in Benin City, Edo State, on Wednesday staged a peaceful protest over alleged extortion by waste managers.

 The spokesperson for the protesters, Veronica Eboshiogue, told journalists that the market leaders are also conniving with waste managers and Oredo Local Government Area officials to exploit them.

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“They just wake up and impose levies and nobody can speak for us. If it was the time of (ex-Governor Adams) Oshiomhole, when we cry out like this the government will answer us, but now nobody helps.

“Last year, they increased the sanitation fee from N200 to N500 and last Monday, they just pasted a notice that everybody will now be paying N1,000 each for sanitation while squatters will be paying N150 daily.

“Recently they came to collect N1,000 each to clean our drainage only for us to discover they were directed to come and clear and not to collect money from us.”

But reacting, the Director of Revenue, Oredo Local Government Area, Agbons Uyigwe, said the increment was a result of complaints from waste managers following the high cost of diesel to fuel their vehicles.

“We cannot leave our markets in the filthy situation due to Lassa fever, monkeypox, so, we met the waste managers and they suggested that instead of N500 sanitation levy from store owners and N50 from squatters, the store owners should now pay N3,000 monthly while the squatters will pay N300 daily.

He said they later agreed on N1,000 for stores and N100 for squatters as against their demand.