Aloysius Attah, Onitsha
There is tension in the Onitsha Electronics Market (Electromart), located along the Onitsha-Asaba expressway, Onitsha, following the disagreement between the Chairman of the market, Chief Izuchukwu Okoye and the Secretary, Comrade Damian Ogudike leading to the suspension of the secretary by the Chairman.
At the moment, the market is polarised between two camps among those supporting the chairman and those opposed to his action in suspending the secretary.
This, Daily Sun gathered, is also happening amid tensions over a rumoured take over and outright plans to sell the market to an investor by AMCON in order to recover a long-standing bank loan accumulated by past executives who built the market.
The suspension of the secretary, Daily Sun gathered, follows his alleged refusal to endorse the chairman’s plan to change the constitution of the market in chairman’s favour.
According to the secretary, Ogudike, ‘he wants to change the constitution to become the chairman of Board of Trustees, (BoT) so that after his tenure whenever there is vacuum he will continue in office as chairman pending when an election will be conducted and I said no to that, that he should consult the entire traders to air their views on that issue instead of imposing that on them.
‘He suspended me and threatened to shoot dead the Chief Provost General, Chief Ifechukwu Emmanuel Anozie, for supporting me. He also suspended me for demanding for due process in the allocation of shops to prospective buyers and accused me of fraudulently embezzling the proceeds of the shops allocated.
‘There are others he has placed under close watch to suspend if they open up on his fraudulent activities. Presently he has partnered in favour of a bank against the traders so that we will pay to the bank a whopping sum of about N300 million the bank claims that we owe it for building our market.’
When contacted, the chairman, Izu Okoye, denied all the allegations levelled against him by the secretary describing them as a figment of his own imagination and plot to incite the traders against him (chairman) thereby causing chaos in the market.