Residents of Dutse satellite town in Bwari area council of the Federal Capital Territory, (FCT) have called on the area council authority to relocate roadside traders at Dutse market, along Dutse/Bwari road to ease traffic on the road.
?A resident of Dutse Alhaji, Isa Hamza, lamented that the traffic congestion along the road had become unbearable and attributed it to the activities of the traders.
He advised the leadership of the area council to consider expanding the market to accommodate more traders.
“The traffic congestion is usually worse at Dutse Alhaji junction, because the market is very close to that place and when you complain, the traders causing the traffic congestion always use the excuse that they have to make ends meet.
“We are not saying the market should be removed from here. What we are saying is that the authority of the Bwari area council should move the market further away from the road, expand it and relocate the traders that sell their wares outside the market, and that would ease the traffic congestion along this road,” he said.
A trader in the market, Agatha Ohia, who noted that the traffic congestion was worse in the evenings, attributed it to the fact that most of the traders moved their wares outside the market when the market closes by 6:30 pm so that they can finish selling them, especially those selling perishable items.
She said, “Some of the traders who sell outside the market have shops inside the market while others do not. There are still some petty traders who feel they do not need a shop to trade and these are the ones you find hanging by the road side. The truth, however, is that even if they do not have shops inside the market to sell that should not give them the right to use their wares to obstruct traffic flow.”
Ohia added that the area council authority can map out a strategy to expand the market and relocate the traders who do not have shops in the market and after that, set up a task force to monitor the use of the market and the control of roadside traders, especially in the evenings. She said this could go a long way in solving the problem experienced along the road, particularly on Mondays, which is the market day.
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