By Yang Ater Yang
Traders and shop owners in Mingkaman market of Awerial County of Lakes State have gone on peaceful strike keeping their shops shut for customers in protest of rampant cases of breakage into shops and stealing of their business stocks by thugs.
The traders staged a sit-down strike closing all their shops yesterday, Tuesday
Ahmed Mohammed, a member of business community in Mingkaman told No.1 Citizen Daily Newspaper yesterday that the traders decided to shutdown shops in order for the government to address the issue of high rate of night robberies of shops in Mingkaman market.
“We did not open any shop this morning because last night, we had one shop again broken into and looted in the market apart from the 5 shops which were broken and looted in January. Now, the total number of shops looted since January this year are 6 shops,” he said.
Mohammed fault the Awerial local authority which is in charge of provision of security at night in Mingkaman market for failing to curb the robberies.
“The traders are not sleeping in their own shops in the market to protect their own shops, but it is the local authority, the town clerk and the organized forces are the ones in charge of the security in Mingkaman market. But shops are being broken into by the criminals since they took over the responsibility of night supervision of Mingkaman market,” he said.
The traders said the businesses will open later on after meeting with town clerk of Awerial County over the issue of high rate of night robberies and lack of market supervision by the organized forces in Mingkaman market.
Meanwhile, when contacted, the Town mayor of Awerial County of Lakes State, Abraham Deng Cuei said his administration is aware of the closure of shops by the traders in Mingkaman market, but are not informed of the reason for closure.
“We are aware of the closure of shops in Mingkaman market, but we are not aware about the reason of the closure of shops and I have now invited them to come to me in the office for a meeting,” he said.
Deng acknowledged the local government of the county is responsible for the security provision at night in Mingkaman market.
“I have invited the leader of traders from Mingkaman to come and inform me about the reason of keeping shops closed. We shall update you later after our meeting with traders. Now I don’t have enough information unless I hear from them,” he said.