Posted by Tunde Busari, Lagos on
NOTORIETY of the dreaded Lagos area boys seems to have defied possibility of salvation as they terrorised the petty traders at the on-going Evangelist Reinhard Bonnke's crusade.
NOTORIETY of the dreaded Lagos area boys seems to have defied possibility of salvation as they terrorised the petty traders at the on-going Evangelist Reinhard Bonnke's crusade.
The traders, who usually attend such gatherings to sell basic things and provide services to the attendees have since the beginning of the crusade on Wednesday lamented their nightmare the boys, also called Omoniles (sons of the soil) have constituted.
Some of the traders who spoke to Saturday Tribune said the boys claimed to be the custodian of the olympic ground where the crusade is held, hence their right to collect levies before make-shift shop outlets were allowed to be erected.
'Who are you to question them. They would not even give you the chance to say anything than to pay them or leave the ground, they came in a group," said Mrs. Funmi Jeje.
The Mopol from the police headquarters, Ikeja, however, were up to the task as they kept vigil on the traders and the faithfuls who slept in the open space with no case of crime reported as at yesterday.
This laudable security arrangement may, however, suffer sustainance problem going by the findings of ST. Morale of police on 24-hour duty seem to have diminished greatly as complaint of neglect and poor welfare package was the common issue of discussion among them.
'They promised to pay us N400 daily feeding allowance, the money is not regular, we are struggling with the mosquitoes in the night. Yet, nobody cares to know," an angry Mopol told ST.
What you sell determines how much you are levied. Food sellers under canopies paid N3,500 while soft drink sellers paid N2,000. Pamphlet and other motivational books' sellers paid N1,500 with hawkers of sachets water, souvenirs and other articles paying N100 per day.
The traders' woes were compounded, according to them by a low sale. This, a trader said was unprecedented when compared to the past edition. Miss Titi Joseph, a mobile phone service girl told ST that the levies could not have been felt if the sale was corresponding to them.
Titi, however, identified the organisation of the crusade as the reason for the unimpressive sales. She argued that if the crusade was organised in a close camp format where the attendees stayed in the crusade premises from day one to the last day, sales would have been ‘good' but In a situation like this where people come from their homes and leave the crusade ground in the night, there is nothing we can do," Titi said.