Anambra State government through the Operation Clean and Healthy Anambra, OCHA Brigade recently raided major markets in Awka, Ogidi, Obosi, Oba and Owerri road, Onitsha and arrested sixteen persons suspected of touting and collecting illegal tax.
Parading the suspects at the command headquarters of the Brigade in Awka, the Managing Director of OCHA Brigade, Comrade Celestine Anere who spoke through the agency’s Public Relations Officer, Mr. Anthony Agbaefuna reiterated Governor Chukwuma Soludo’s ban on touting in the State, assuring that the agency will continue to crack down on those who engage on the illegal business to ensure that it is reduced to the barest minimum.
Comrade Anere enjoined individuals with illegal means of livelihood to relocate or enroll into the “One Youth, Two Skills Empowerment Programme of the Soludo administration or risk being apprehended and prosecuted.
According to him, the agency will continue to arrest hoodlums who refuse to stop touting alleging that they constitute the majority of criminal activities in streets of Anambra State and warned against assaulting the staff of the agency warning that the State government will deal decisively with any culprit .
He said that the suspects will be handed over to the police after which they will be charged to court.
Some of the suspects confessed to assaulting the officers of the agency but pleaded innocent of the crime leveled against them claiming that they are either keke riders, travelers or private traffic management officials looking for means to fend for their poor families.
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