2,000 Women Went On Rampage In Igbo-Ukwu, Anambra Over Stall Allocation

                                                  

Tension is brewing in Nkwo Igboukwu community Aguata local government area as over 2,000 women protest over allocation of stalls.

The tension was caused by a disagreement between the leadership of Igbo-Ukwu Traders and Workers Association (ITAWA) and market women who accused the market association of highhandedness, extortion and applying force to make them belong to the association. 

The placard carrying women demanded for the sack of the Anambra State Commissioner for Commerce and Industry, Mr Robert Okonkwo and resignation of the ITAWA chairman, Mr Ugochukwu Okafouzu, for extorting the women and others in the market.

Leader of the protesters ,Mrs Grace Anaekwe known amongst the women as Madam Black alleged that ITAWA under the leadership of Mr Okafouzu had demanded N50, 000 and above from each woman as fees paid to retain a stall or acquire new one.

She further alleged that the money was outside other amounts paid to the market association ranging from N4, 000 to N6,000 for logistics.

Anaekwe, the managing director of CLAY-MACO Construction Nigeria Limited, a contractor financier that built the market stalls alleged that the market association collected N50,000 and  above from five applicants to one stall which she said had led the applicants to seek diabolical means to eliminate one another including going to Okija shrine.

She also alleged that because the women objected to belong to the association thugs were deployed at the wee hours to destroy their goods especially those who sold food stuffs, called ndi ihengote in their local parlance.

She said that the women were calling for the removal of Mr Okonkwo to be reassigned   to a different portfolio while Mr Okafouzu would be caused to step aside from ITAWA leadership "as his tenure has expired’’.

But in a swift reacting to the allegations, Mr Okafouzu said that the 15-year contract agreement between the contractor financier and the Anambra State government had expired, saying that the woman leader had no business in the allocation or re-validation of the market stalls.

Okafouzu said all the fees for stall allocation or retention were known to the government. He said that the government was still acting within the confines of the law since it had to take over the administration of the market with the help of the market association as the contract agreement between government and the contractor financier ended in 2004.

 Commissioner for Commerce, Mr Okonkwo could not be reached as at press time.