The Rivers Government has re-assured all residents of the state of its resolve to provide an enabling environment for legitimate businesses to thrive.
The Secretary to the State Government (SSG), Dr Tammy Danagogo, gave the assurance when he received leaders of the Hausa Traditional Welfare Association of Port Harcourt on a courtesy visit to his office.
Danagogo, who also restated that the state government would continually protect those carrying out legitimate business, urged the group to support Gov. Nyesom Wike-led administration to actualise this pledge.
He also reiterated the need for members of the public to obey extant laws to ensure peace and development.
Danagogo said the state government had set up the task force on Illegal Street Trading, Illegal Markets and Illegal Motor Parks to sanitise the streets of Port Harcourt and return it to its Garden City status.
The SSG, who expressed his condolences to the group over the death of a member, called on the Hausa community to remain calm as the police were investigating the matter.
He said the police would make public the outcome of the investigation, pledging that whoever was found culpable would face the wrath of the law.
Danagogo also advised the leaders of the Hausa community to prevail on their members who always loiter around the Hotel Presidential precincts to refrain from doing so as they have become a public nuisance.
He said that the state government would partner with the Hausa community to relocate them to a conducive and befitting place for their business.
“I know that most Bureau de Change operators are responsible, but when some of their members always hang around the Hotel Presidential road, other miscreants now join them to deface the environment and commit atrocities,’’ he said.
Earlier, Alhaji Isa Madaki, the Sarki Hausa, Port Harcourt, and Chairman, Arewa Council of Chiefs South-South and South-East, said that the visit was to draw the attention of the government to the incessant harassment of members by the task force.
He alleged that such harassment resulted in the death of a 75-year-old man, Alhaji Yusuf Ladin. (NAN)