Trouble Brews in Onitsha Market over Merger

There was palpable fear at the Ogbaru Plastic Dealers’ Multipurpose Market in the commercial city of Onitsha yesterday when the traders protested against the alleged plot by the state government to merge the market. Daily Sun gathered that the protest erupted when the Commissioner for Commerce and Industry, Mr. Robert Okonkwo allegedly wrote to the market executives on the plan by the ministry to merge the market with Prime Laden Investment and Agency limited. The Chairman and Vice Chairman of the Ogbaru Plastic Dealers’ Multipurpose Market, Mr. Timothy Uba and Sampson Ejezie respectively, while briefing journalists brandished a letter from the commissioner’s office to the market executives directing the Prime Investment Agency to collect tolls and other revenues from the market. Mr. Uba disclosed that individual traders bought land from the agency and built shops only for the latter to come back to the said market to refer to them as subscribers instead of the owners of the shops. He said: “We bought land and built shops there, to our greatest surprise, the same person that sold the land to us said we are mere subscribers and that triggered great argument. We wrote to the state government instead of the Commissioner for Commerce and Industry to look into the matter, he said we should merge and ordered the agency to collect all tolls and other royalties from the market.”He further disclosed that when all letters from the market leadership to the state government through the commissioner failed, they resorted to no other help than to seek legal redress to address what they called executive high handedness against the market leadership. However, reacting to the development, counsel to the market leadership, Mr. Sidon Abuchi condemned the action of the commissioner, describing it as infringement on the fundamental rights of his clients and said he would explore all legal means to get justice. Meanwhile, the Commissioner for Commerce and Industry, Mr. Robert Okonkwo, in his own reaction said the action was to maintain peace in the market as well as to restore normalcy in the markets in the state.