The Cross River State government’s ban on selling and hawking roadside roasted corn has been met with criticism.
Two days ago, the government of Governor Ayade ordered roasted corn vendors to leave major thoroughfares in the city of Calabar or face arrest.
Barrister Tony Adinye, chairman of the state’s Pollution Control Agency, issued the directive in a letter bearing his signature.
Before August 1, 2022, corn vendors and hawkers were ordered to relocate to the city’s interior.
He said the directive is “in a bid to urgently sanitize the metropolis of every form of environmental pollution and bring decency to the aesthetics of the state”.
All over social media, residents of the state have attacked the government over the order, tasking it to, first of all, evacuate the heaps of refuse that have inundated the city and blocked many major streets for more than two months.
Peter Akpan said, “This government is insensitive and clueless. Is it possible he corn sellers that are responsible for the wastes all over the once beautiful city?”
Bisong Raymond said, ”they have nothing important to do than to deprive poor, hapless people who are eking out a living from nothing”.
Mrs Frances Eno reacted, asking whether it is the maize sellers who are the major causes of environmental pollution in the metropolis. She described the government as clueless!
They called on the government to rescind the order and allow the corn sellers hustle from the seasonal business.
A corn hawker in Calabar, Madam Nkoyo Ekpenyong, a mother of four, appealed to the state government to soften the directive, adding that with such order government agents would immediately begin to harass and seize their wares.