What really happens at bus garage at night.

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.