Gov Wike bans nightclubs, prostitution in Port Harcourt … cart-pushers from Port Harcourt streets

Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Wike

Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Wike has banned Nightclubs and prostitution in his state.

The governor gave the order in his New Year broadcast in Port Harcourt on Saturday, Wike banned nightclub activities including night-time trading and street prostitution especially along Abacha road and surrounding streets particularly in the Casablanca area.

According to the governor, the move will “Stop the harmful effects of this depraved activities on the moral development of the children and society at large.”

However, it remains unclear how long the ban will last, but certainly, the Governor-Wike-led-administration has less than two years left in office, in view of the 2023 general elections.

The governor has directed security agencies in the State to arrest and prosecute anyone attempting to violate the ban. He said a taskforce would be set up to this effect.

Governor Wike has also banned cart-pushers from operating in Port Harcourt. According to him, the cart-pushers “have become notorious for indiscriminate scavenging and littering of wastes on street corners and the medians of major roads and highways across the State, adding that cart-pushers have been involved in stealing of manhole covers and thereby endangering people’s lives on the roads.

“The State Government has placed an immediate ban on the activities of cart-pushers and directed law enforcement agencies to arrest and prosecute anyone who attempts to violate this ban,” the governor said.

It is not yet clear if the ban covers the entire Rivers or if it is for Port Harcourt, the state capital, only.

According to a Premium Times report, during an interview with a former official of the Rivers State Internal Revenue Service if cart-pushers contribute the internal revenue of the state, the respondent submitted that “Not to the extent that I know because where would you even place them, what do they do? They don’t carry passengers. We don’t see that they make any money. What I see, maybe they carry scraps or refuse waste from point A to Point B. We don’t see them as business people, we see them as people who are trying to survive,” he said.