By Our Correspondent
Concerned Members of Iron Dealers Union, Atani in Ogbaru Local Government Area of Anambra State who paid for plots of at Nteje to build new market have called on Governor Chukwuma Soludo to prevail on their former chairman, Mr. Nnaemeka Onuzululike to hand over their plots to them.
Addressing newsmen at Onitsha the traders also appealed to the Governor to prevail on the former chairman and his cohorts not to disturb or chase them out of Atani road where they have been carrying out their business activities, since they have been in Court with him over their plots of land at Nteje.
The group’s spokesman, Mr. Okafor Celestine Uzochukwu, who is the current Financial Secretary of the Union said trouble started sometime in 2014 when they joined with other unions: Iron Dealers Porthacourt Road, Iron Dealers Union, Uga Street, Pipe and Plumbing Dealers, Bridgehead all in Onitsha and others to acquire land to build new market at Nteje, Oyi Local Government Area of Anambra State.
When they got the land , about 1,200 plots, said Okafor, the former chairman asked them to pay N150, 000.00 in three tranches of N50,000 each which they did.
But Onuzululike said they the property was 900 plots, while a little over 300 plots were devoted for roads,
At about 2015 or there about, said Okafor, Nnaemeka told them that the place had an issue and asked them to pay another N100,000 each to resolve it which they did and he confirmed that it has been resolved.
But unfortunately, when they called him to show them the plots they had paid for he refused.
Instead of showing them their plots of land, the former chairman asked them to pay another money, this time N1,450,000 each person who had earlier paid N250,000.
Then, said the spokesman, they went to Court but while still in court the former chairman went to build shops and started selling them even some plots to outsiders.
” He refused to give us account of the transaction.. Up till now we don’t know the number of those who paid for the shops, rather he asked each of us who had earlier paid N250,000 to pay another N1,450,000 to build shops for each of us which we refused” he said.
He accused the former chairman of using the money he got from selling their plots to fight them and compromised a lot of people.
The traders said when the former chairman’s tenure expired after eight years of two tenures, he refused to hand over and hung unto the office until Prof. Soludo came and appointed Caretaker Committees in the market.
Unfortunately, the current Caretaker Committee chairman, Mr. Evaristus Ejezie, was his Vice-Chairman and was dancing to his tune.
“It is more or less as if he is still running the association . He is in his third term because Ejezie is a rubber stamp. Nnaemeka still operates the account of the Union. Out of four accounts of the Union, he only handed over one which contained N22, 000 in it”.
The traders said all efforts to resolve the matter at the the State House of Assembly and other places were thwarted by the former chairman who they alleged brought thugs to stop them from loading and off-loading at their Atani Road Market, which is an indirect way of forcing them to Nteje site, which he has not accounted for.
The traders called on the Governor to prevail on the Onuzululike to immediately hands off their union activities since his tenure has long expired.
He should equally urgently render account of the money paid to him and the plots bought with it with a view to handing over to every person who had paid his plot.
When contacted Onuzululike said that there is no truth in the allegations that he has hijacked the plots they bought for the traders at Nteje, saying that they refused to join others to pay up their money to their own shops and we’re busy formeting trouble.
He said they agreed in the general meeting that he would give account of his stewardship when they completed the market and packed in, wondering why they are now demanding for account when they have not completed the market.
Onuzululike said in one of their meetings with Special Adviser on Markets, Chief Evaristus Uba, it was agreed that he should hand over any Government property with him to the new Caretaker Committee chairman, which he had complied with.
It was also agreed, said Onuzululike, that the lawyers of the two parties should meet to resolve the matter and bring out the case from Court, which they observed in breach.
The third decision, he said , was that he should hand over the site to the Caretaker Committee, stressing that the Ministry had specifically written to their lawyer, Chief Arthur Obi Okafor, to advice them to relocate to the new site at Nteje since the order is not peculiar to them alone but involved all other markets that are part of the Nteje market projects especially those dealing with iron rods.
He denied handing over fake documents to the Caretaker Committee, arguing that most of the documents he has were being used for court cases and he could not have handed them over to the Caretaker.
Onuzululike also said the arguments of showing them their plots does not stand because there is nowhere markets are built in plots but by the accepted standard sizes.
