By Alphonsus Nweze
Traders of Iron Rod Union, Atani Road, a suburb of Onitsha have sent Save Our Soul (SOS) message to Governor Chukwuma Soludo of Anambra State to hearken to their cries by unsealing their market, sealed since January 23, 2025.
Making the request on behalf of the traders during a press conference in Onitsha, chairman of Board of Trustees (BoT) Chief Eugene Obi -Okoye, and the former Public Officer (PRO) of the Market, Mr. Jude Mbadugha, appealed to the Governor to prevail on his Special Adviser on Market, Chief Evaristus Uba and Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Commerce, Mr. Chinedu Ike, the former chairman of the Market, Chief Nnaemeka Onuzulike and Evaristus Ejezie, the current chairman of the market to immediately reopen their market.
They also asked the Governor to prevail on the office of his Special Adviser on Security which uses one Chukwuma Okpalaezeukwu harass and intimidate them to desist from interfering in their market and tormenting the traders.
Addressing newsmen on behalf of the traders who paid for plots in Nteje, Mbadugha said without due regard that this matter has been in the Court, the people mentioned above went ahead to shut down their market at a time when they were just returning from Christmas and New year festivities.
He said it is necessary to state that they want their 178 plots to correspond with the number of those of them who contributed money, querying the rationale behind the closure of their market without allocating them their plots they have paid for.
“Our plots have not been given to us, yet they sealed our market”, said Mbadugha who alleged that it was Nnaemeka and his conspirators , not Anambra State Government that included their market in the list of markets that would be sealed so that he would force them out of Atani Road to his new market which has not been completed.
He also accused Nnaemeka of having refused to render account of the market project to the traders.
He said for almost four weeks,they have not been doing anything because their market was shut down by Chief Uba, Ike, office of Special Adviser on Security to the Governor, Nnaemeka and their agents.
The former PRO lamented that the closure of their market has added to the current hardship being experienced in the country, saying that some of them have been finding it difficult to take care of their families and pay their children’s school fees especially this closure coming after Christmas and New year festivities.
In their letter to the Governor, the Trustees of Iron Rod,Atani Road equally pointed out that the case has been in the Court,stressing that they have been losing hundreds of million of naira since the closure.
In the petition by the chairman of the BoT, Chief Eugene Obi -Okoye, written by their lawyer, C.I. Nwokoye,they asked the Governor not to allow some of his aides to frustrate his Second Term agenda by frustrating traders who would vote for him in November election .
They accused Uba, Ike and one Chukwuma from the office of the Special Adviser to the Governor on Security of taking side with Nnaemeka’s group instead of being neutral as demanded by their ethics of their offices to be in a better position to resolve the matter.
“The Union has problem but instead of being neutral and impartial umpire , Chief Uba and Ike sided one faction of the union controlled by the former chairman, Nnaemeka”,said the BoT boss who called on the Governor to use his good office to direct that their market at Atani Road be unsealed with immediate effect.
