Newspaper vendors allege harassment by gov’t agents

The Akwa Ibom State Newspaper Vendors Association has protested alleged harassment of its members by agents of the government.

The vendors, who were at the secretariat of the Correspondents’ Chapel yesterday in Uyo, alleged that some of their members selling newspapers around Ibom Plaza, a business hub in Uyo, complained of being unduly harassed regularly by officials manning the facility.

Chairman of the Association, Mr Otobong Udofia, who spoke on behalf of the vendors, accused the management of the plaza of demanding a monthly fee of N2, 000 from each of them, adding that efforts to stop the daily harassment had failed.

The Chairman of Ibom Plaza, Mr Ima Umoh, denied the alleged harassment, saying the management wanted to sanitise the place and prevent it from being used by hoodlums to commit crimes and as such, asked the vendors not to display their papers there.

When the Commissioner for Information and Strategy, Mr Charles Udoh, was contacted, he debunked the claim that the government had ordered that vendors should not sell newspapers by the plaza.