Ogbaru Main Market election: We Are Not Afraid Of Election, Lets Follow Due process-Bucknor Agu

By polycarp Ifeanyi, Onitsha.

The care-taker leadership of Ogbaru Main Market, near Onitsha, Anambra State led by Chief  Ndubuisi Ochiogu has reacted to the controversy trailing the proposed general election in the Market.

Speaking to newsmen in Onitsha, the secretary general of the Care-taker committees, Chief Bucknor Agu who spoke on behalf of the Caretaker Chairman, Chief Ndubuisi Ochiogu unequivocally restated that the timetable of the Market election was never hindered by the Caretaker Chairman, Chief Ndubuisi Ochiogu.

” The timetable for the election is being waited upon because it is the Ministry of trade and commerce that would adhere to the Constitution of the Market before the election could  take place.

” The Caretaker Chairman, Chief Ndubuisi Ochiogu is insisting on the due process that the reviewed Constitution of 2016 of the Market should be duely followed as regards to the articles 80, 1c and D which specified the method of nominations of electoral board, the time frame of the electoral board and the methods of the election in general” 

Chief Agu revealed that the constituted caretaker electoral committee board had elapsed in February, 2021, pointing out that the committees  were constituted in December, 2020 which he said,  the Constitution of the Market stipulated that the electoral Committee board only last one month before  election.

” The present electoral board had elapsed. Any time the election would be conducted, we think that the Ministry of Trade and Commerce would deem it necessary to follow the Constitution of the Market and the Patrons of the Market, the Board of Trustees (BOT) and the president would do the needful as enshrined in article 80, 1c and D of the Market Constitution after which, the election would be conducted.

“Many people are seriously agitating for the election to be conducted now without due process and we said no, the present care-taker committees said no,  the entire executives of the Market said no until the due process is duely adhered to. We are abide by the Constitution of the Market, the Constitution of Anambra State Market Amalgamated Traders Association (ASMATA)  and Constitution of the State so that there would be no crises in the Market”  

According to him, the Anambra State Market Amalgamated Traders Association (ASMATA)  has already issued an order that every Market election should follow the Constitution of their respective Markets, noting that such prompted them to be calling  on all and sundry in the Ogbaru Main Market that nobody should pretend ignorance of the Market Constitution.

” So, the care-taker Chairman, Chief Ndubuisi Ochiogu is calling for the Constitution to be absolutely followed before the election to be conducted. He was not the one who reviewed the Constitution. He met it when he assumed duty and he maintened that it should be adhered to and that is our stand  respectively.

“No electoral board lasts for eleven months. So, if they present electoral board is dissolved, other things would be followed. Nobody is afaid of election and nobody is running a way from the election”. He restated !