Some 120 members of the Newspapers Directors and Distributors Association, Anambra chapter, have staged a peaceful protest against alleged harassment by two task forces in Onitsha.
The task forces are the Anambra State Traffic Agency and another constituted by the Onitsha North local government.
The vendors alleged that their members had lost goods worth more than N200, 000 to the officials of the task forces.
The Vice Chairman of the association, Chief Christian Ikpe, told newsmen in Onitsha that many newspapers and magazines were burnt by members of the task force at Upper Iweka.
He said the members of the association had in the last two years lost newspapers and magazines worth more than N1 million.
"It is painful that the same thing is repeating itself this year,'' he said.
Ikpe warned that if the government did not stop the harassment, members of the association would not circulate their newspapers and magazines for one week.
Reacting, the Commissioner of Transport in the state, Dr Chike Ohamobi, said those harassing the vendors were not members of the traffic agency.
He said they were local government workers decongesting the roads.
The Chairman of Onitsha North local government, Mr. Edward Okosi, also denied the claim that his officials were responsible for burning newspapers and magazines.
National Mirror