Main Market Onitsha peaceful, we Are Comfortable With Our Chairman – Says Traders

By Polycarp Ifeanyi, Onitsha

Stakeholders and traders  of multi-million naira  Onitsha Main Market, Anambra State have said that there is peace in the Market due to good leadership of their Chairman, Chief Innocent Ikechukwu Ezeoha.

They spoke against the backdrop of allegations  in the social media platform that Chief Ezeoha among other things want to build a plaza at the Johnson Street in Main Market, an allegation the Chairman has forcefully denied.

The traders  said  there is no iota of truth in the  allegations, adding that  the whole thing was  fabrication by opposition  against Governor Chukwuma Soludo, Everist Ubah, the Special Adviser to the Governor on Trade and Market and Chief  Ezeoha himself.

 They said the opposition would   never see anything  good about the ongoing transformation by Governor Soludo in Anambra State and that of the Main Market in particular.

One of the stakeholders in the Market and a Line Chairman, Mr. Chijioke Obi  fondly called  “Ezeobinwa” said the allegations should be ignored because every good leader always faced  propaganda and backbiting by enemies.

He said he has stayed in Main Market since 1983 and has witnessed successive leaders but none of them was transparent and truthful like Chief Ezeoha, saying that if Chief Ezeoha is fraudulent as the online medium, AIF Media claimed, they, the traders would have raised alarm.

“Those who fabricated the report against Chief Ezeoha want to truncate the peaceful atmosphere of the Market. They purposely want to tarnish his image unnecessarily but traders will not agree because Chief Ezeoha is working. His administration has attracted a lot of development in the Market. As you can see, the Market is cool and peaceful

“As a line Chairman, there is nothing like plotting to annex Johnson street so as to build a plaza by Chief Ezeoha’s administration.He who the cap fits, let him wear it” he said.

Continuing  he said: “There is nothing like imposing the Caretaker Chairman on the traders. In fact, some people are very bad, imagine threatening not to return Soludo the only Governor who  provided access roads to Main Market. But not knowing that traders have concluded that Soludo’s second tenure is sacrosanct.”

” I think it is when a leader is not doing well that people will be calling for his removal ? So, I have not seen evil or offense Chief Ezeoha committed that would warrant. his removal as the Caretaker Committee Chairman”

Also speaking, a line Chairman and one of the Main Market stakeholders, Mazi Chike Okeke, said: ” when the enemy is speaking, you will know. It is only a blind man that you can convince that there is no oil in a soup. Chief Ezeoha’s achievements are clear and visible. I am a titled man. What I am telling you is nothing but the truth. Before the regime of Chief Ezeoha, Bright Street was no go area in terms of wastes, yet we were paying sanitation levy while somebody was pocketing it. But immediately Chief Ezeoha became the Chairman, he evacuated all the heaps of waste at Bright street and Main Market vicinity.”

Speaking with newsmen, the  Chairman of Main Market, Chief Ezeoha  wondered how some people would just decide  to tanish people’s image, pointing out that the report against him was totally false.

He recalled that he was appointed as the Main Market Caretaker  Chairman two years and six months  ago and he has attracted a lot of achievements which include; decongestion of roads inside and outside the market .

He also introduced automatic fire extinguisher, waste bin in all lines, stopped illegal revenue collection, introduced weekly sanitation and inspection of drainage channels, restructured the mode of IGR payment in the Market  which made  the Market to emerge first in the revenue generation in all the markets in the State.

Chief Ezeoha equally explained that they wanted to renovate the white House corporate office  of the Market as recommended by an international   team of visitors who visited  them some months ago.

But some of his executives who wanted to enrich themselves tried to inflate the amount for the job so that they would share  among themselves, a plot he resisted.

He said  the estimate  for the renovation was #21,074,000 but some executives wanted to inflate the amount.

Meanwhile, some other  traders in the market which included; Mr. Ambrose Okorie, Chief Alfred Okeke, Lady Ngozi Ndudi, and Evangelist Walter Maduabuchi also confirmed that Chief Ezeoha has transformed Main Market and they are  enjoying his leadership.

They added that  Chief Ezeoha never imposed any levy or intended to levy them except normal IGR which they pay to the state Government.