.As traders plan peace meeting with govt, pleads forgiveness
CHIGOZIE AMADI
The Apex sociocultural Youth organization of Igbo Race, Ohanaeze Youth Council, has urged market leaders in Onitsha, Nnewi, and Awka to collaborate with Governor Charles Soludo in ensuring that all market leaders are open on Mondays.
Reacting to the closure of Onitsha’s main market on Monday by Governor Charles Soludo in conjunction with the Anambra State Government, Comrade Igboayaka O Igboayaka, national president of Ohanaeze Youth Council (OYC), emphasized the need to utilize every strategic means to ensure traders open their shops without fear of intimidation or threat to life from gangs disguising themselves as enforcers of the sit-at-home order, which has been halted by the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB).
Comrade Igboayaka urged market leaders in Anambra especially Onitsha Main to cease locking the market entrance every Monday, as it was seen as a form of political maneuvering.
“Those criminal elements enforcing Sit At Home are enemies of Ndigbo, sponsored to shut down the only means of survival of Ndigbo in Nigeria, which is commerce and trading,” Comrade Igboayaka revealed.
Comrade Igboayaka O Igboayaka Ohanaeze youth Council president general noted that Ndigbo people have proven themselves to be accomplished business leaders, industrialists, and entrepreneurs, having endured the catastrophic consequences of the 1967-1970 genocide through an apprenticeship system that originated in the Onitsha Main Market and spread to markets across Nigeria. Accordingly, anyone claiming market leadership in Anambra who enforces market lockdowns in ONITSHA is, in reality, an adversary to the economic survival of Ndigbo.
The Igbo people have demonstrated resilience through self-reliance and entrepreneurship, commencing businesses with a mere £20 since 1970, despite the Federal Government’s confiscation of their assets, leaving individuals and business tycoon with only £20 after the Genocide Against Ndigbo where Federal Government troop slaughtered 4.3m Igbos, regardless of their substantial pre-conflict bank holdings.
The bold initiative of Governor Charles Soludo to permanently end Monday sit-at-home in Anambra especially in Onitsha,the economic hub of Ndigbo is an ideal that every progressive Igbo person and lover of Igbo political and economic liberation should support and applaud, according to Comrade Igboayaka O Igboayaka.
“I earnestly request that the leadership of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) and the Department of State (DOS) swiftly collaborate with Governor Charles Soludo’s administration to put an end to the Monday sit-at-home order that robbed Ndigbo 6b weekly and address any criminal elements enforcing the order, which is detrimental to the good reputation of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) built by Mazi Nnamdi Kanu” Comrade Igboayaka appealed
Notwithstanding Governor Charles Soludo’s failure to meet our expectations as Governor of Anambra State, anyone who opposes his plans to end Monday sit-at-home in all the Markets in ANAMBRA is an adversary of Biafran restoration and Ndigbo, Comrade Igboayaka O Igboayaka concluded.
Also, Traders at the Onitsha Main Market and environs who were sanctioned by having their markets shut down last Monday by Governor Chukwuma Soludo, for observing the Monday sit-at-home exercise, had in a closed door meeting held Tuesday at Onitsha Main market Secretariat, (White House), resolved to meet with the governor.
The meeting it was gathered was well attended by the executives of the concerned markets and stateholders who expressed optimism that the governor will give them listening ear.
Fielding questions from newsmen shortly after the meeting, the chairman of the market, Chief Chijioke Okpalaugo, said, “A letter has been written, we are going to see him, (governor), and appeal to him for forgiveness.
“We have just finished the meeting now, we appeal to him to consider reopening the markets .We are losing a lot because of the Monday sit-at-home. We, Onitsha market traders resolved to see the governor within the week and plead for forgiveness.
“Soludo is a progressive minded governor and his decision is welcomed because we are losing what we are suppose to be getting because of Monday sit-at-home. He loves his people, his decision is a nice one because he took it at the right time.
“What he means is to push us to stop observing the Monday sit-at-home exercise and he has done that.Some people want to hijack the situation via embarking on illegal protest.
“We urge him to reopen the market before coming Monday. I am not aware of any protest they said was going on against the closure of the markets, they are miscreants.
“Government officials came to us earlier, last Monday and told us to reopen or the markets will be shut, and the governor has shut the Main Market and other adjoining markets,” Okpalaugo stated.
Recall that Soludo while shutting down the markets for one week in the first instance, vowed to shut the markets for one month if the traders fail to comply.
