Onitsha Main Market Boils As Traders Protest Imposition Of CCTV Levy

Thugs suspected to be members of the Movement for the Actualization of the Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB) yesterday invaded the Onitsha Main Market, beating-up traders who were protesting the levy charged by market leaders over the installation of CCTV camera in the market reports www.odogwublog.com .

Trouble started on Wednesday morning at about 8.30 am when some task force members and suspected hired agents came to “White House” line to collect the N200.00 levy charged per shop by the market executive.

The levy which is N200.00 monthly per shop was said to have run into several billions of naira in the market that has over 10,000 shops.

According to an eye witness who pleaded anonymity, the market agents demanded levy returns from the chairman, but he was said to have bluntly told them that his members have refused to comply with such payment.

His bluntness, however, angered the task force members and they allegedly pounced on the said line chairman beating him to a pulp. While his shirt was torn to shreds.

For man-handling their leader other traders immediately locked-up their shops and mobilised fellow traders in the market who joined their colleagues in the mass protest.

Mobile Policemen were later deployed to the scene to checkmate further escalation of crisis. while shop owners hurriedly locked-up their shops against the ravaging thugs that invaded the market.

Speaking to reporters on the incident, the line chairmen and secretaries of zone1, zone 2 and 3 of the market, who did not want their names on print for fear of their lives said that the traders had earlier expressed joy when the state government supported the installation of the CCTV camera in the market, stressing that traders had only agreed to pay for maintenance levy.

The market leaders lamented that the Onitsha Main Market leadership led by Chief Innocent Agudiegwu and AMATAS President, Chief Okwudili Ezenwankwo were only using the opportunity to enrich themselves.

According to the line chairmen and their secretaries, each line in the market pays a levy to maintain their line security, likewise the central market security and wondered how some majority of the traders in the market were going to cope under such exploitation.

All attempt to speak with the chairman of Onitsha Main Market, Chief Innocent Agudiegwu proved abortive as he was not in his office when this correspondent visited the market. While his cell phone was switched-off.

His counterpart and President –General of Anambra Markets Traders Association (AMATAS), Chief Okwudili Ezenwankwo told reporters that he was mobilizing to get the situation under control.