Plateau Govt. bans street hawking after bomb

A House of Reps committee says NEMA figures of bomb victims wrong The Plateau State Government has imposed an immediate ban on street hawking in the state capital, Jos, more than a week after at least 100 people were killed in multiple car bombs near a market there. The commissioner of information, Olivia Dazyem, said hawkers are to relocate to markets within the capital. Traders along Murtala Muhammed way, Ahmadu Bello way, Terminus area, are to relocate to the Rukuba Road satellite market, the government said. The state also ordered that all street motor parks in the central business Area of Ahmadu Bello way and street markets and traders on Murtala Muhammed way and Terminus area move to approved motor parks. The announcement came following multiple attacks in the restive state in the last 10 days. Two car bombs killed 118 people at a market last Tuesday, according to the National Emergency Management Agency, NEMA. But the Plateau State government said 78 people were killed. There was another bomb attack near a football viewing center killing additional four people. Meanwhile, the House of Representatives committee on Emergency and Disaster Preparedness has urged Nigerians to disregard the casualty figure provided by NEMA in the first bomb attack. The committee said the figure provided by the state was the authentic death toll. Speaking Wednesday in Jos, the chairman, House committee on Emergency and Disaster Preparedness, Ifedayo Adegunde, said the figure provided by the Plateau State government was more reliable. “I believe the state government is getting direct information from the hospitals, they can get better information than NEMA who are in Abuja,” he said. Asked whether the public should disregard the NEMA’s figure of the attack, the lawmaker responded in the affirmative. Mr. Adegunde said the committee will ensure that hospital bills of the victims receiving treatment was jointly settled by the state and the Federal government. Members of the house committee later visited victims of the blast who were still in the hospitals.