By Oluwatosin Peter

Findings have revealed that commercial banks in Sango-Ota and hawkers have been locked in a battle for spaces on the very busy Lagos-Abeokuta express road for months now. This is even as some banks have retorted to arresting errant hawkers who refuse to leave bank entrances.

According to a commercial bank worker who pleaded anonymity, “Many of the hawkers prefer selling in-front of our offices despite warnings from our management not to do so.

“They will display their wares right in front of our offices, thereby defacing the corporate image that is supposed to be attached to a commercial bank.

“When you look at most buildings along the express road in Sango bus-stop, you will notice that hawkers are in front of all of them. They (hawkers) just mount tables in-front of buildings without recourse to the opinion of the occupants of such building.

“They (hawkers) claim to have paid for such spaces to the local government through the Chairman of the Sango garage, but is the local government in-charge of a Federal road? We have had to chase many away from our office entrance and will arrest any found to be defaulting.”

Also speaking with Nigerian NewsDirect, a cross section of the hawkers claimed that having paid for spaces along the Lagos-Abekuta express road, the banks have no right to chase away hawkers who display their wares on the road.

In the words of the hawkers, “The hawkers don’t display their wares inside the bank premises. We display our wares on the roadside. That it is in-front of any commercial bank does not make any difference. The banks don’t own the roads. The banks have gate leading to their entrance, and we try as much as possible to ensure we don’t block such entrances leading to the banks.

“But chasing us away from the high way in-front of their offices, we think is being too high handed on the part of the banks. The bank premises don’t extend to the main road. It is a road belonging to government, and as Nigerians, we should not be deprived of our rights.

“When we pay for the right to display our wares on the roadside in Sango, we do so because selling is our means of survival. Chasing us away from the road because it is in-front of the banks is deriving us of our source of livelihood.

“When the bridge was not yet built, where were the banks then? When we display our wares from the beginning of the roads down to Joju junction prior to the demolition that brought about he flyover, where were the banks then?

“It was when the bridge was constructed that most of them came rushing  down to Sango. Fine, we are not against them operating from here, but they should not disturb us from making our means of livelihood.”