Igbo-Ukwu market traders protest multiple levies, thuggery
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The protesters, who stormed the Anambra Government House,
Awka, on Monday about 2 p.m., carried placards one of which read: “We want
peace at Igbo-Ukwu Main Market.”
Mr Godwin Okeke, the Chairman of the association,, who
submitted an official protest letter to the state government, said that the
hoodlums stormed the market on Nov. 10, with dangerous weapons and charms.
He noted that economic activities at the rural market which
operates once in every four days, had been paralyzed following the activities
of the hoodlums, who claimed to be government agents.
“If you go to Igbo-Ukwu market now, all our shops are locked
because we refused to pay a levy of N24, 000 per annum.
“They even went as far as breaking the padlocks used by shop
owners and replacing them with theirs.
“We can no longer tolerate the intimidation of market men
and women using guns, matchete and other dangerous weapons by the group.
“That is why we have come to find out if they were sent by
the government because we know in other nearby markets in Uga, Umuchu and
Ekwulobia, the situation is not like this.”
He explained that traders previously paid local government
toll and sanitation levy totaling N100 daily.
In his remark, the Secretary of the market, Mr Ogochukwu
Ezeani, who said he had operated in the market for more than 20 years, said
that the development started about a year ago.
“The immediate past Commissioner for Commerce, Trade and
Industry had said that the market had been taken over by the government, but up
till now, we are yet to see any form of proof that government had taken over
the market.
“Even the President-General of Igbo-Ukwu community has told
us that there is no such document or idea that government had taken over the
market.
“This same group led by Mr Ugochukwu Okaforuzu, collected
N50,000 last year from about 500 traders in the market under the guise that the
same government would allocate stalls to us,” he said.
Also recounting her ordeal, an electronics dealer, Mrs Mercy
Ojimmadu, said that she discovered on the morning of November 15, that her shop
had been locked with another padlock.
“Upon enquiry, I was told that it was carried out by the
hoodlums who insisted that we must pay N24, 000 levy, failing which our shops
will remain closed,” she said.
Responding, the Special Adviser to Governor Willie Obiano on
Parks and Markets, Mr Cyril Obiano, who received the letter and other protest
materials, promised that the government would address the matter.
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