[color=#990000 Most motor parks across Nigeria do
not only serve the purpose of loading
and offloading passengers. They also
serve several purposes which people
do not know. Research has shown
that major parks in Nigeria turn to
mini international markets at night
with different kinds of traders all
struggling to sell and also, a conducive
atmosphere for smokers to enjoy
themselves as they feel very
comfortable doing their thing at odd
hours.
While many people retire to their
various homes in the evening after a
stressful day, others are warming up
to come out for their own daily
struggle which could take some up till
midnight.
The question now is, what could
make a human being deny him/
herself the comfort of his/her home
to sell at night? Who are these people
selling to? It will also interest you to
know that, every goods has its market.
Not only that they sell some goods
which are mainly fake, motor parks at
night is normally a hideout for all
kinds of hardened criminals. Research
has also shown that most rape cases
were carried out in the motor parks.
When SATURDAY VANGUARD
conducted a research to know why
some people would prefer to sell at
night especially in some parks, it was
learnt that most of the people that sell
at this time, from 6pm till midnight do
that just to avoid registering with the
council. They prefer to settle the
Omonile to enable them do their
businesses in the parks and the road
sides.
Madam Bose, who sells hot drinks in
one of the parks in Ikotun said that
why they normally like to sell in the
night and in the early morning is
because that is when most of their
customers have chance to take the
products. “It is not that we don’t like
sleeping and that we prefer to sell in
the night but it is when we can sell
our goods.
Most of our customers are drivers
and conductors and it is only this time
that they can sit and have some drink.
They drink in the early morning
before going to work and late in the
night after work. I have been doing
this business for the past three years
now and this is the normal time we
make much sales. Some people are
ashamed to drink during the day
especially, some corporate workers.
They would not want people to see
them taking the product. They come
when they feel nobody will see them.
I will tell you that the majority of my
customers here are force people.
They drink so much. They drink
before they go to work. I am living
comfortably and taking care of my
family from the proceeds I make from
my sales,” she narrated. According to
Bose, she also sells outside the
market because, she does not have
that kind of money it costs to register
in the market union.
Another trader Evans, who sells cloths
at Oshodi market attributed the
conversion of motor parks and road
side into markets as work of people
who would not want to follow the
normal process of registering their
business with the council and be
paying the normal association’s due
attached to such registration. He also
warned Nigerians to stay away from
people who make such sells as most
of them sell fake and expired drugs
due to the fact that they cannot be
traced.
In his words, the 47 year old father of
three said, “ I want to warn Nigerians
to stay away from such people who
always sells at night. What they sell are
mostly fake. How can a normal
person who believe he/she is genuine
prefer to be selling in the night when
it is dark.
Ask yourself, what if this person sells
poison to me, would I be able to
know him? There is no address.
Because they are not real, that is why
most of them do not want to register
in their line inside the market to sell.
They prefer to be settling all the
Agberos outside instead of doing
things the way it should,” Evans said.
“ The popular Bolade park is normally
a different world in the night as that
always serves as a very good hang out
for many hoodlums.
“The kind of smoking that goes on in
this Bolade park scares me sometime.
You will see children below 15 years
smoking different sizes of marijuana.
The annoying part of the whole story
is that, you’d see police men patrolling
the road with little effort of arresting
these delinquents. Night life here is
normally another world entirely. There
is no type of illegal activity that you will
not see in this area as from 6pm.
Different gangs of pick pockets
operate. Sometimes, when night
travelers going to other States want to
come to the park to book their tickets,
some will lose their luggages to
thieves. They also rape girls here
sometimes too,” he said.
Another speaker who pleaded
anonymity sees no reason why
people should trade in the park
beyond 7pm. He said that anybody
who is caught trading at that point
and in the park is illegal and should
be treated as such. “If you go to that
park after 7pm, you will agree with me
that anybody in that place at that time
is not a human being. Some people
convert the park to their personal
homes.
There is no sort of indecent life that
you well not see in the park. Some
bath, sleep, and even make love to
girls right there in the park. Rape is a
normal thing in some parks in this
state. If they can do their normal
business of buying and selling, there
won’t be any problem with that but,
they go beyond that. If you go there
during the night, there is no kind of
thing that you will not see. You will
see faeces of different kinds and
sizes”.
According to him, all those ladies that
hawk hot drinks in buckets are all bad
people. There is no crime that they
cannot commit because, some of
them know all these bad boys. “I
know that some of these ladies, sell
marijuana and cocaine. There is no
kind of bad boy that you will not see
there.”
For Iya Tosin, who is popularly called,
Iya by her customers, she can’t just
stop her business of hawking hot
drinks which she has been doing for a
very long time. Irrespective of the fact
that most of her customers might
have dubious character, that does not
mean that she should stop her
business.
“ I cannot stop selling to my
customers because, they have bad
character. I don’t know what they do
for a living but, they are my
customers. I am not a thief and I
don’t sell marijuana so, I don’t know
what they do for a living. Though
some of us might be dubious , I am
not,” Iya Tosin said.


www.vanguardngr.com/2013/09/what-goes-on-in-most-motor-parks-at-night