SOME TRADERS CALL FOR URGENT INTERVENTION IN THE DEMOLITION OF THEIR STRUCTURES

enugou logoThe Association of Demolished shops owners in Aria Market, Enugu wants the Enugu State Governor, Chief Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi to intervene in the demolition of their structures by the Enugu North Local government and seek ways of ameliorating their plights. The traders made their feelings known in a peaceful march at their sites demolished in 2013.

They carried placard with inscriptions “those shops are duly allocated to us, our members are dying of heart break and the people’s Governor wipe away our tears”.

They expressed regret that the loss of the shops duly allocated to them by the then Chairman of the council had not only subjected them to untold hardship but gradually making them to loose their family members who die because of the inability to withstand the situation. The President of the Aria Market Traders’ Association, Mr. Adolphus  Ani assured them of the Unions’ support.

The Traders prayed God to help them in recovering their shops.  Similarly, Car dealers at the automobile market located in Naze in Owerri North Local Government Area of Imo State yesterday blocked the Owerri-Aba road to protest the alleged harassment and plot to forcefully eject them by some agents of the State Government. Addressing newsmen, the Chairman of the group, Chief Rufus Osueke said his members woke up to see the gate and perimeter fence of the market reduced to rubbles.

According to him, the government has been making moves to relocate the market for the second time in less than six years to a new site that was yet to be constructed. Mr. Osueke lamented that the automobile market was built through self help and wondered why government would want to displace them without making alternate arrangement.  The protest resulted in confrontation with officers of the Nigerian Air force whose temporary base was adjacent the automobile market.

Attempts by the military personnel to remove the vehicles used in barricading the road and get the protesters out of the road to ease traffic was met with resistance which eventually led to the use of teargas to disperse the angry men. However, the intervention of the Commander, Nigerian Air Force 211 Regiment Owerri, Group Captain Solomon Lazarus restored normalcy to the area as the people were assured of dialogue with the government.

Efforts to get the reaction of the government yielded no result as the Secretary to the State Government, Mr. George Eche did not respond to calls put across to his line.

 

 

CHINAZO ILOECHUKWU

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