Jeff Amechi Agbodo, Onitsha

Traders at Onitsha Drug Market Bridgehead (Ogbogwu) under the auspices of the Concerned Committee of Friends  have alleged that suspected fake drug dealers have hijack the leadership of the market urging Governor Willie Obiano to intervene in the crisis.

The group accused the fake drug dealers of working against the conduct of elections in the market, preferring instead, caretaker committee members.

Chairman of the group, Chief Ignatius Akuma and former Chairman of Market Evangelism, Mr. Titus Uwa, at a press conference at the weekend said what the traders wanted was free, fair and credible elections into leadership positions in the market.

They lamented the running of the market through a caretaker committee for the past two years against the wishes of traders. They said only credible elections would produce leaders, promote peace, harmony and eliminate  illegal activities in the market.

Akuma said after the visit of the Commissioner for Trade and Commerce Mr. Uche Okafor to the market few weeks ago, they were assured  that elections would be conducted on April 16.

Related News

He, however, said  although the date for the election had been fixed, no guidelines had been released, and no electoral committee  set up for the conduct of the election.

Akuma urged Governor Obiano to compel the commissioner of trade and commerce and caretaker leadership to conduct elections based on the constitution of the market.

According to Uwa, the market can only thrive with an  elected leadership.

“We appeal to Governor Obiano to conduct election for an elected leadership to emerge. We are not interested in who wins, but the constitution must be followed.

“We should know the electoral umpire and they should be open to come up with guidelines for the election, and any qualified candidate should be allowed to contest.

“The election must be transparent, should be conducted in the day time or at night based on option A4 of the constitution,” he said.