Traders at CTC Market in Agbor have cried out to the Ika South Local Government Council Chairman,Hon(Barr) Victor Okoh not to displace or relocate them without giving out new shops to them at the new neighbourhood market site at the Edike Street area in Agbor. The traders who were at the residence of the President,Ika Landlords/Landladies Association, Mr Vincent Arimokwu where they registered their protest on what they called the poor handling of activities in CTC market by the Ika South Local Government Council.
The traders lament that the Ika South Local Government Council was harsh to them as they are being forced to quit the market and also, purchase forms of ten thousand naira (#10,000) each before they will be allocated spaces at the temporary neighbourhood market site at Edike Street.
“We are not against the building of CTC Market to a modern one,all we are saying is that government should allocate space to us at the neighborhood market at Edike Street. We have shops built with our own money at CTC Market, government should please consider this.We cannot go ahead to pay #10,000 each for space after our shops have been demolished. The worst was that the Ika North East Local Government Council Chairman, Hon(Barr) Victor Ebonka was the person who brought the contractor that has now set to take over construction work at CTC Market.We are here at the residence of the President,Ika Landlords/Landladies Association, Mr Vincent Arimokwu to appeal to him to help us approach the Ika South Local Government Council Chairman, Hon Victor Okoh.
Responding, Mr Vincent Arimokwu said that the traders should be given space at the Edike Street neighborhood market. He noted that Covid-19 has melted a serious hardship on Nigerians including the traders who since the pandemic started are not doing well in their businesses.
“Construction work has ethics, you cannot destroy when you have not built.My point as a stakeholder and President,Ika Landlords/ Landladies Association is that the Ika South Local Government Council should build and allocate stores to the CTC traders before any demolition work is carried out at CTC Market,Agbor. I am not happy with the way the traders are currently treated by Ika South Local Government Council. I thank the traders for coming to my house to inform me of the development. My association will take their complaints to the council Chairman,Hon(Barr) Victor Okoh for him to threat it urgently.
Meanwhile, a developer, Mr —— has complained against the subversion of his work at CTC Market.
According to him, “When I was to commence work at the CTC Market, Agbor, I told the Ika South Local Government Council Chairman, Hon Victor Okoh that the market was full of refuse that the only way we can get the comprehensive dimension was to clear the refuse. But he told me that the council doesn’t have money so, I promised that I will use my money to clear it and I spent Six Hundred and Forty Thousand Naira in clearing the refuse. When I finished, the market women were pleased with me and they showed me another location that I should assist them in clearing, I told them that as it is now that my company cannot fund it, they voluntarily told me that they will be able to contribute money for me to get my tractors to come and clear the remaining place which they did. They paid Three Thousand Naira each and in return I issued them receipts to ascertain their payments. At that verge, I called the chairman and told him about the development and he was so pleased with it. He said some persons were telling him that I came to collect money from the market women but, I told him that those persons gave the money on voluntary basis and that they were so pleased with what I was doing.
He invited us to his office in company of the market Union to confirm and they told him that they are so pleased with what I was doing and he told them that he was the one that assigned me to do it.
“On the 28th of January, some stakeholders in Agbor came to the market in the company of Hon. Festus Okoh who asked what I was doing and I explained to him and they arrested me that day, reaching the station, I was granted bail on the basis that I should go back to the market and repair whatever have been destroyed in the market, that I should go and rebuild and make it better than it were before which I promised I was going to do and I started. Somewhere along the line, this Covid-19 saga came and work stopped but immediately, it was caught off, I went back to the site. I was at the site where I discovered that another construction company has come to take over the contract. They asked me to go back to the site to reconstruct and rebuild the areas I destroyed before we can go into any conversation.
All of a sudden same people came and told me to desist from the project that another company has taken over not even thinking about my own aspect of it, that I have spent my hard earned money I borrowed from the bank and other financial institutions to make sure that the market is rebuilt and you are now telling me to quit the contract that you never sent me to do anything.The market women that their shops were demolished at the time of clearing the refuse are still on my neck telling me to rebuild their shops. The co-operative Union sent me a petition that I have to rebuild the areas that I destroyed in the market. The Local Government council is not saying anything about it. I am carrying this burden on my head to make peace reign in Ika south. I did not come to breach the peace, I came here with new creation but problem now came up, everybody took to their heels leaving me now to suffer. I called the market women together and pleaded with them to give me some time to sort issues out.
They are now seeing me as the architect of the problem they are facing today, that someone came to serve them a 14 days notice and showed them another location to build their shops. That if I haven’t come to the market problem won’t have arised. I told them that we should cry to the appropriate authority.
I was genuinely out to help the market women, I was born and brought up in Ika land, I had no bad intentions.
I am appealing to Ika South Local Government Council to give me the benefit of doubt by allowing me do what I want to do. Am just like a destiny helper.”
Ika Landlords/Landladies in a group photograph with the protesters from CTC market, Agbor
