Aftermath of students’ death, Oyo residents seek abolition of street trading, rehabilitation of road

Unless the Oyo State Government urgently gives Oyo town a special focus in terms of urban upgrade, lives of residents may be in danger.
This is because the ancient town still remains a recurring decimal in discussions about urban degeneration.
One critical area in the town that is begging for utmost attention is the Sabo Market in Atiba Local Government.
It is also one of the major markets with largest concentration of cassava products by farmers in the metropolis.
Besides the offensive odour oozing out from rotten cassava in the market, which is also a source of serious concern, as it greatly imperils on health of residents, neighbours and customers are in grave danger, as a result of activities of street traders on the federal road, with its undulating terrain.
These traders endanger their own and other road users’ lives, encroach on public space, perpetrate crimes, and engender infrastructural deterioration, thus, constituting social menace.
Findings showed that the struggle for survival, exacerbated by
pervasive and endemic poverty have kept traders on the road, despite the attendant dangers surrounding the enterprise.
They cared for no one, and often harass and intimidate anyone who dared to challenge their presence and blockade of the road.
Passing through Sabo market, linking Ijawaya, along Oyo/Ogbomoso
highway, let alone other township roads is a tug of war, as both motorists and commercial motorcycle riders would have to slug it out on the narrow federal road, occupied by traders who display their wares.
Due to carefree attitudes of these traders and their recalcitrance to frantic efforts by the local government to ensure free flow of traffics, most residents of the ancient town have refused to patronize the market, and alternatively opted for other markets, such as
Ajegunle, Elekara and Ilora.
More worrisome are commercial vehicles’ operators who carry consignments of cassava products from farms to the market.
These drivers are largely illiterate, inexperienced, often drunk, over confident and operate poorly-maintained vehicles on equally poorly designed and ill-maintained road.
They have succeeded in transforming the road into arenas of tears, blood and death, as hundreds of road users had been sent to the great
beyond.
The latest was the untimely death of five female students of the Federal Government Girls College (FGGC), Owinni area of the town.
The students, who had just resumed for the new academic calendar year, were said to have left the school premises, after obtaining official permission, to fix their hair in the neighbouring Sabo Market.
After fixing their hair, the students boarded an intra-city mini-bus back to school.
The students, including other passengers and the driver, all in the vehicle, were awaiting a mini-lorry fully loaded with garri to pass when the mini-lorry ran into a big pothole beside the mini-bus.
Consequently, the driver of the mini-lorry lost control and the vehicle fell on the mini-bus, which was completely compressed, killing six persons (five students and the driver) on board.
Other passengers were said to have sustained various injuries.
To the amazement of residents, the street traders and other traders inside the market resumed for business the next day.
In anger, street urchins stormed the market and beat up the traders.
Also, students of the college staged a peaceful protest to the
Alaafin’s palace and Atiba Hall where caretaker chairmen of the four local governments in the metropolis (Afijio, Atiba, Oyo-East, Oyo-West) and other community leaders converged for a town hall meeting.
Sobering with tears, the students accompanied by the school’s
Principal, Mrs T. A. Olasusi, management members and teachers, carried placards with various inscriptions calling for abolition of street trading, rehabilitation of the federal road and relocation of commercial vehicles loading garri to and from the market.
The caretaker Chairman of Atiba Local Government, Mr. Gbolagade Okeniyi, who paid a condolence visit to the school, described the incident as ‘very disheartening’.
According to him, “before now, the local government had rehabilitated the federal road thrice, checkmated the activities of traders on the road and relocated the mini-lorry commercial vehicle operators to a
newly constructed site known as ‘Beta’ ”.
While expressing dismay at the care-free and recalcitrant attitudes of both the street traders and mini-lorry drivers, Okeniyi gave an assurance that the local government would apply full weights of the law on anyone who
contravenes its directives.