Onitsha market election crisis deepens as traders reject caretaker c’ittee

Aloysius Attah, Onitsha

Uneasy calm now pervades the Onitsha electronics international market after efforts made to conduct election to elect the executives of the market, last weekend, was aborted.

This was sequel to speculations that a chairmanship candidate, Chief Emmanuel Ibeh, connived with some people at the corridors of power and stopped the election prompting an immediate protest by the traders.

The situation notwithstanding, stakeholders of the market, under the aegis of United People’s Front (UPF), o Wednesday, declared that on no account would they yield to the imposition of Caretaker in the market.

Chairman of UPF, Engr. Chijioke C. Nwobodo, vowed that the members of the UPF in the market numbering over 600 in concert with democratic forces would resist the imposition of Caretaker on the market.

Nwobodo who was surrounded by the members of UPF said that Caretaker Government was not an option in a privately owned market, urging the government and well meaning people of the State to come to their rescue.

He said that owing to this development, the traders in an emergency meeting at Godwin Achebe on that 27th April adopted a motion which extended the tenure of Izu Okoye led executives by three months from April 27 to July 27, 2018, to enable them organise themselves for another election, which the members of UPF supported.

The group also asked Governor Willie Obiano to, as a beneficiary of free polls, not to be part of removing or obstructing democratic structures in Anambra markets.

But reacting to the allegation, on Wednesday, the embattled Ibeh said the outgoing leadership of the market is only afraid of losing the election and that was the reason why they don’t want him to contest but rather have been employing all manner of tactics to conduct a kangaroo election.

Ibeh said the outgoing Chairman, Izuchukwu Okoye was already aware that the election slated for last weekend would not hold but he deceived some gullible traders to come out and waste their precious time in the stadium.

He said the incumbent Chairman of the market who is also re-contesting for second tenure was imposed on the traders by the President General of the Amalgamated Traders Union in the state.

“Izuchukwu Okoye, the Chairman whose tenure has just expired is not a member of the market. He has no membership card and shop. The shop he now stays was the one he got upstairs after he was declared winner of the election through the help of Okwudili” he said.