The Bayelsa State Government has begun the demolition of illegal shops at the ultra-modern Swali market in Yenagoa, the state capital.

This, according to the government is in line with the social distancing order in preventing the dreaded COVID-19 pandemic from entering the state.

Fielding questions from newsmen on the urgency of the demolition, the chairman Bayelsa COVID-19 implementation committee and the market chairman said the government had given the traders notice before the exercise.

Some shop owners who claim to have been trading in the market for years denied being informed by the task-force, saying they pay sanitation levies to government agencies. 

Meanwhile, despite the state not recording any case of the coronavirus pandemic, the state has now imposed a dusk-till-dawn curfew as proactive measures in preventing the virus.