Hawkers invade offices during work hours

They showcase eye-catching articles like phones, beauty products causing distraction at job site.

There is no-go-area nowadays for hawkers. They have shifted from roadsides to houses and offices where they target “big” clients in order to extort money from them by selling above normal prices.

What baffles most workers in the administrative headquarters at Bonanjo is the ease at which they shout about and spare no efforts in showcasing their goods during working hours.

Two days ago at the Mobile Intervention Unit n°2 at Bonanjo, a mobile telephone hawker was detained for about two hours for refusing to leave the premises with her merchandise. When released, she went ahead and asked reinforcement from the quarter that prompted the men in uniform to transfer her to the Judicial Police where she is presently under custody for further questioning.

The hawkers who brandish attractive telephones, dresses, shoes, cosmetics and even concoctions that cure more than 100 diseases, have women as their primary target. The orators use convincing tongue to draw money from customer’s wallet who later realise that the amount spent is not equal to the quality of article bought.

The flashy items sometimes distract workers who run helter-skelter to borrow money in order to buy what hawkers claimed is unique only to discover that the whole neighbourhood put-on the inimitable dress, shoe or handbag. By so doing, they make abnormal profit at the expense of naive clients. As the phenomenon gains ground, so too have some ministerial departments and companies taken measures.

After the incident at the Mobile Intervention Unit N°2, authorities pasted a notice prohibiting hawkers from approaching the premises. In the building that host Littoral’s Delegation of Arts and Culture and SOPECAM Douala, the security man fondly called Commando, said he has shown red card to hawkers of all sorts.

Away from hawkers, agents from insurance companies and banks equally disturb workers during work hours with their numerous “beneficial” offers.