Help Igbo traders languishing in prisons, govs told

A federal commissioner representing South East Zone in the Public Complaints Commission (PCC), Abuja,  Mr  Sampson Okorie, has called on governors in the East to quickly consult their various state attorneys-general to form a legal team that would see to the release of Igbo youths in different prisons across the country over street trading.

Specifically, the federal commissioner said that as at March this year, 168 Ebonyi State youths had been languishing in Kirikiri Maximum Prisons, Lagos, insisting that the traders should not have been remanded in Maximum prison since the law banning street trading in Lagos was enacted in May. 

“Their penalty would have been N5,000 or one-month in prison. And this happened before the enactment of the law banning street trading in Lagos,” he said. 

Okorie who spoke yesterday during the South East Economic Summit held in Enugu, however, emphasised that while the Igbo are busy discussing the economic development of the region, it was imperative that they take positive measures that would give freedom to their young ones who are suffering in several prisons across Nigeria for mere street trading.