Abia Halts Appointment Of New Market Leaders Amidst Tension

By Suleiman Anyalewechi

If you endorse the change in leadership, it means the 2027 Election is already rigged

The Abia State Governor, Dr Alex Otti, on Wednesday, February 5, 2025, directed the  immediate suspension of all actions taken with regard to the purported dissolution of the  leadership of all Markets in the State.

This is even as the Market leadership  insisted that allowing the new  arrangements unchallenged will tantamount to handing over the State on a platter  to the same reactionary and  oppressive  forces that the people battled so hard to dislodge in 2023.

The Source reports that palpable tension had engulfed all the markets  last Wednesday January 29, 2025, following the announcement of the appointment of a new leadership for Abia markets by the state  Commissioner for Trade and Commerce, Hon Kingsley Nwokocha.

He had directed the leaders to take over the running of the affairs of the market from the existing ones, effective last week Thursday.

However, the development was not well received by the majority of the traders, and their leaders who expressed fears that the markets and the state as a whole may have been unwittingly handed back to the same dark forces that held the state down for over two decades .

This led to the leaderships and traders to storm the state’s seat of power on Wednesday to protest against the development .

Governor Otti, who was represented by his Chief of Staff, Dr Caleb Ajagba, while addressing the protesting traders and their leaders also directed a return to the status quo.

“We want to thank you for the peaceful manner you have conducted yourselves. As a responsible Government, we want to assure you that having listened to your grievances; the right thing must be done.

“As you may be aware, Government has ordered the suspension of all actions so far taken as regards the issue of the appointment of a new leadership for the markets due to its belief that things should be  done the right way”,  the Chief of Staff stated.

He, however, expressed Government displeasure with the lip service being paid to the issue of tax payments by the traders and their leaderships.

Dr Ajagba noted that without payments of tax and rents by citizens, it will be practically impossible for any  Government to meet its obligations to the people.

“At this point, I am urging you to go back and reconsider your attitude towards the payments of Government statutory levies and taxes.

“You have to show that you are also capable of doing the job given to you to do. If people do not meet their civic obligations, I don’t think it will be possible for the Government to deliver to the people.

“At least, you have acknowledged that Government is trying the much it could to fix things in the State, and there is no way it can succeed in that regard without funds.

“So you people have to wake up as far as the issue of internally generated revenue is concerned.

“Our goal in this new fiscal year is to improve on the Internally Generated Revenue, IGR, of the State ,and you people have to take it seriously.

“As an evidence of how unserious you are about revenue collection, most of you don’t know the number of shops in your markets.

“If you don’t know the number of shops in your various markets, how then are you expected to be serious about collecting revenue?

“So you people have to sit up and help the Government in its avowed task of moving the state forward. We cannot continue to do things the same old and unhelpful way”, Dr  Ajagba noted.

Earlier, the leader of the protesting traders ,Sir Alphonsus Udeigbo ,said that allowing the new list  of market leadership to stand means that the 2027 election in the state has already been rigged and won by the same dark forces they battled hard to displace in 2023.

“Your Excellency, Sir it might interest you to know that the concerns of the dissolved executives and the traders under the ASMATA at large is futuristic in the sense that we have been able to properly situate the development, and have  been able to figure out through the questionable characters of the proposed market executives that have been penciled down to replace us, that there is calculated attempt to rig the 2027 Governorship election in the state by the opposition parties  where these proposed executives were selected from which may not be known by the  Honourable Commissioner for Trade and Commerce.

“So, on that note, we want to say that we bear no grudges against anyone or the authorities, hence this rally today is not a protest against our dissolution, but against the proposed executive members because of their political antecedents”, the ASMATA President stated.