... Accuses health Commissioner, Permanent Secretary of discrimination
By Godwin-Maria Utuedoye
Petty traders and food vendors plying their businesses in the premises of Central Hospital Ughelli, has lamented their eviction from the premises accusing the management of being bias and sectional.
Narrating how they were evicted from the premises, some business owners who spoke to journalists but choose to remain anonymous disclosed, that the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Health had earlier instructed that every shops and trading activities in the premises should stop and ordered that they should vacate the premises.
According to them, the order was duly honoured as directed, but noted that since their eviction, some top management staff, their relatives and wives were left to trade in the premises. They expressed their discomfort and frowned at the action of the management, stating that it is seems as an act of victimization targeted at only those who had no connection at the top or affiliations to the hospital management.
“Yes they said we all should vacate the premises maybe due to perceived threat or risk of infections or something, but we do not know the reasons. They said no one should be seen selling or trading inside the premises until a proper area will be allocated, but from what we are seeing, we were chased away so that only the top officers and their cronies can trade in the premises.
“It is wrong for you to allow some persons to continue doing their businesses whereas others were chased away.” An aggrieved business owner narrates.
Contacted to ascertain the rational behind their eviction and while some are allegedly left behind, calls and terse messages put across to the Commissioner of Health Delta State Commissioner for Health is Dr. Joseph Onojaeme, were neither picked nor responded to, but a visit to the hospital confirmed the allegations as some shops are s open for businesses while others ha e been brought down.
Those left behind as gathered allegedly belong to top management staff, their wives or family members.
It will therefore be fair, if management will deviate from such discriminatory practices and allow all business owners who were evicted to come back and continue their businesses in the premises or locate a suitable place for them. According to some fruit sellers who spoke under anonymous condition, they make their ends meet from the daily sales they do at the hospital environment but said since the eviction from the premises, things have become so difficult to them.
If all the traders are well relocated, it will no doubt promote fairness and equality among all vendors and prevent any further accusations of victimization. The management should also provide clear guidelines and regulations for all business owners in the premises to follow in order to avoid any misunderstandings in the future.