Onitsha market exco denies sit-tight leadership accusation; confirms Feb. 26 election date

The President of Anambra Markets Amalgamated Traders Association, AMATAS, Chief Okwudili Ezenwankwo, yesterday said that the election into Sokoto Road Traders Association, a unit of Onitsha South Shop Owners Association of Nigeria, OSSOTAN and an appendage of Onitsha Main Market

has been scheduled to take place on Thursday, February 26 reports www.odogwublog.com.

Ezenwankwo added that as far as he was concerned, there was no election in the market before now.

Some aggrieved traders in the market loyal to Oforzoba-led executive had demonstrated on the streets of Onitsha last week, in protest against the refusal of the Amechi-led caretaker committee to vacate office and hand over the mantle of leadership to Oforzoba.

At the exercise during which they carried placards with various inscriptions, the demonstrators, backed by members of the Board of Trustees, BoT of the market, accused AMATAS of taking sides in favour of the caretaker committee and urged the state government to recognize Oforzoba group as the authentic executive of the market, having been elected on January 22, as directed by the state commissioner for Commerce and Industry, Chief Ifeatu Onejeme and OSSOTAN executive. 

But the embattled members of Caretaker committee of Sokoto Road Traders Association, a unit of Onitsha South Shop Owners Association of Nigeria, OSSOTAN and an appendage of Onitsha Main Market has denied the accusations by some aggrieved traders in the market that they refused to vacate office after the January 22, 2015 election during which Chief Ignatius Oforzoba-led nine-man executive was allegedly elected.

Chairman and Secretary of the caretaker committee, Chief Amechi Okafor and Callistus Igboka who made the denial at the weekend while speaking to newsmen, said that contrary to the widely held impression created by the Oforzoba-led splinter group that carried out a peaceful protest over the matter recently, elections to the executive positions of the market has been slated for Thursday, February 26.

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The caretaker committee members said the purported election of January 22 which the protesters claimed brought in a new executive headed by Oforzoba never held since the State Ministry of Commerce and Industry canceled the election and released a new date for proper election.

The caretaker committee members who acknowledged that their tenure expired in December, 2014 challenged the claimants to the executive positions in the market to produce evidence of how they conducted and who supervised the so called election that produced them into office.

They accused some members of the Board of Trustees of the market who they said operates outside the market of fanning the embers of discord in the market and advised all interested traders in the market to pick their nomination forms and contest for any elective position of their choice instead of fomenting trouble where there is none.