Vendors and newspaper distributors in Delta State recently sang songs of sorrow as when the task force on the beautification and sanitation of major cities in the state pulled down their stands.
Badly affected are newspaper vendors and distributors in the oil city of Warri and neighbouring Effurun community, the bulldozers descended on structures the government considered an eye-sore.
The vendors, numbering over 200 have, therefore, cried out to Governor Emmanuel Uduaghan to come to their rescue and rebuild them a depot as well as compensate them for their huge losses.
Comrade George Adjekughele, chairman of the Newspaper Distributor Agency lamented the woes the task force has brought to members of his association who are struggling to make ends meet.
He told Daily Sun that the vendors, in their thousands, had pleaded with the task force to spare the newspaper depot meant to serve members of the public, but were ignored.
"After series of appeals and explanation, the task force on the beautification of major cities went ahead to unleash terror on the structures and even destroyed thousands of newspapers that were supplied to us that day," lamented the chairman.
Even though the agency was not against the beautification of the cities, he said the government should see reason with them "as we are equally part of the system. We are totally disgusted with the attitude of the so-called task force because the depot was far from the main road. This is the worse moment in the life of this depot and sale of newspapers in these areas."
Although the dealers said they did not suspect any foul play in the action of the task force, they frowned at the manner the government agent went about the assignment.
The depot chairman threatened that all the newspaper vendors would embark on a strike if government failed to come to their aid and call the task force to order.
According to him, the vendors lost goods worth over N1 million, describing the action of the task force as sheer wickedness, barbaric and unfair.
However, Mr. Bright Okumagba, an executive member of the task force, denied that his team was wicked, stressing that they were only trying to ensure that the areas were kept clean and neat. He expressed shock on why the vendors should be protesting their action.
He said the task force was lenient with the newspaper depot, explaining that it was only part of the depot that was touched, adding: "We did not go inside to destroy the main office. Rather, we just pulled down part of the depot."