CITY NEWS Water venders strike in Mpape

Over 100 water vendors in Mpape, an Abuja urban slum, have embarked on strike over what they described as police harassment and extortion.

The vendors stopped selling water to residents on Saturday after police officers from the Mpape division allegedly arrested 19 of their members.

City News gathered that water vending is the major source of water in the area.

The chairman of the water vendors, Mikailu, said they would not resume work until the police released three of his members in custody and returned N16,000 paid to bail 16 other members.

He said the strike could affect residents of Ajegunle, Gwari village, Arab, Crushed Rocks, Mashafa and other places in Mpape.

One of the water vendors, Abubakar Aliyu, said their members were not criminals, explaining that one of them was defecating in a bush when he was mistaken for a thief.

He said police officers later came with him to where he stayed and arrested 18 other people. He said 16 people were released on bail while two others were still in custody.

One of the water vendors released on bail, Tukur Lawal, said he was sleeping in his shanty when he was dragged into a parked police van and driven to the station.

“When we got to the station, we all waited at the counter for the police to interrogate us but they did not ask us any question,” he said.

He said one of the policemen came, using a flash light, selected two people and detained them.

“The rest of us were left behind. So they told us to bail ourselves with N2000 each and we had to bargain the bail fee and settled at N1000 each,” he said.

Another water vendor, Babangida Haruna, said he was arrested with his two children and they were still in police custody.

Our reporters were not allowed to see the Mpape Divisional Police Officer while the Divisional Crime Officer declined comments on the issue saying “you should go and talk to the other people.”

“The whole Ajegunle was turned upside down because there was no water vendor to sell water to the people. Most of them had to stay on a long queue at commercial boreholes to get water,” a resident who declined giving her name said.

On her part, a roasted yam seller opposite First Bank in the area said she had to trek a long distance to her sister’s place before she got water.

“I no see water, na my sister I go beg for water,” she said.

A restaurateur, Mrs Linda Godwin, expressed displeasure over the strike, saying “this strike is really affecting me because we buy water from them to cook the food we sell here. Since yesterday we do not have water, I have been running up and down and it is stressful.”

She said she now gets water from her house more than five kilometres away from her shop opposite First Bank.

“If Mai Ruwa were available it wound not have caused me so much stress to get water,” she lamented.