By Alphonsus Nweze
Traders of Onitsha Drug Market, known as Ogbogwu market in Onitsha, Anambra State have called for the immediate removal of the incumbent chairman of the Caretaker Committee of the market, Mr Chukwuleta Ndubuisi.
A group of traders in the drug market under the aegis of Justice for Ogbogwu appealed to Governor Charles Soludo to order for immediate conduct of an election that would produce a new leadership for the market or appoint somebody who should conduct the election for the traders within the shortest possible period.
Speaking through their leader, Chief Ekezie Ugochukwu, said it is only an elected leadership that would reduce the tension in the market and address the issue of injustices that were being allegedly meted to the traders by the current chairman.
He said it was this injustice that forced them to spontaneously protest against the chairman recently when they demanded for his removal.
He said their major grouse against Chukwuleta was his imposition of one thousand naira (N1000) security levy on each of the traders in the market instead of the normal three hundred naira (N300) they were paying.
The traders said in spite an appeal to the chairman to pay N300 they used to pay, he bluntly refused.
They said that the levy was to cover the three to four months they were out of the market, saying that the traders have been financially down after the payment of levy imposed by NAFDAC ranging from N700,000 to N900,000.
Chief Ekezie said they told him that they have been trying to recover from huge financial loss due to lack of income for several months which has caused one health challenge or the other to most of the traders, yet the chairman is increasing their problem.
He said: “About six of us have died, killed by hypertension. We are not against the payment of security levy but we insisted that we would pay the normal N300.00 not N1000.00. Some developed High Blood Pressure.
“In the face of all this, the chairman increased security levy from N300 to N1000 even when our security men were detained.
“They said the market has about N15m in their purse to offset the security bill the chairman claimed they owed our security men.
“When he came to collect the money, he was resisted and he started closing down shops and carting away our goods.
“We resisted him and he called the Police. We spent the entire last week at the Police station. That is how he uses Police and DSS to intimidate us at the slightest provocation, “he added.
He disclosed that the traders had requested the chairman to give account of his leadership but he refused, adding that he was busy imposing levies on the traders who have been at home for about four months.
They also alleged that he claimed to have mounted a transformer at the cost of N25m which he has hinged on to impose N50,000 on each shop.
“These are the reasons we protested last Friday. He has money in our account plus money companies pay to the market body and we get money from other sources.
“He claims to be suffering, he should step down. He has failed, “they said.
Other members of Justice for Ogbogwu who were with Ekezie were Emmanuel Ozoemena, Chibueze Ifejiofor and Chief Emeka Ehim.
But in his response, Chukwuleta dismissed their allegations, saying that they could not prove them, explaining that the N1000.00 levy was agreed by the members in their general meeting to enable them pay their security who worked day and night during the period the market was shut down.
He said after that payment they would rivert to their normal N300.00 per half shop and N500,.00 for a full shop, adding that the decision was not secret but discussed in their general meeting.
“Nobody kicked against it. About 97 percent have paid it. From May we will return to our normal security levy, ” the chairman explained.
He said their only intention was to unseat him as the chairman of Ogbogwu .
Chukwuleta said: ” They formed a group they call ‘team excellent’. They don’t do anything in the group order than plan how to bring Chukwuleta and kill him.They are forming a parallel government. We don’t fight them.We report to them and their activities to Police.”
He denied imposing N50,000.00 levy on each shop to raise N25m used to purchase transformer for the market, although he agreed that the transformer had been installed but no levy on that has been discussed let alone imposing it on the traders.
