Onitsha  traders reject caretaker committee, urge Soludo to conduct election

By-Polycarp Ifeanyi

The Caretaker Committee installed in the Electronics dealers Market Onitsha by the Anambra State Government through the Commissioner for Trade, Commerce and Industry, Dr. Obinna Ngonadi have on August 5, 2022 been issued Form 48 by the Anambra State High court sitting in Atani, Ogbaru LGA of Anambra State under His Lordship Hon. Justice Alexious Okuma.

Others to be affected by notice of consequences of disobedience to order of the court includes the Hon. Commissioner for Trade , Commerce and Industry Anambra State, Dr. Obinna Ngonadi, Attorney General of Anambra State, The incorporated Trustees of Electronic Dealers Association Onitsha, Mr. Izuchukwu Okoye and Mr. Ikechukwu Ekwegbalu due to their failure to maintain Statusquo as ordered by  court on July 5,2022.

Briefing newsmen in Onitsha, one of the traders in the Market, Mr. Bonny Nze disclosed that  Form 48 which he said  issued to both parties was consequences of their disobedience to the order of the court by installing Care-taker Committees in their Market, saying that Form 49 would sooner issued to them.

According to Nze who is aspirant for the post of Secretary general of the Market ” As our Market constitution required, every four years,  election would be conducted after the expiration of the incumbent executives. This year, we all assemble on a general meeting and agree to conduct election. The former president of the Market, Mr. Izuchukwu Okoye  was the one who convaned  the general meeting as our constitution stipulates.

In the meeting, election committees was set up and Inaugurated . They committees later circulated  information across our Market that anybody who wish to contest election should apply by picking form.The form for the office of president was #300,000, Secretary #150,000 while other positions were #100,000 respectively.

We willingly paid for the forms based on the position each person wants to contest for. We hard meetings about two to three times, all of a sudden, what we heard was that the election would no longer hold . We began to hear rumours that certain funny things have been played behind. Some of us who are aspirants became aggrieved and went to court and obtain injunction restraining State government or whoever might act on anybody’s capacity from doing any other things in the Market other than conducting election.

It is  unfortunate that the Commissioner for Trade, Commence and Industry and Attorney General of Anambra State ignored the court order. We heard from the reliable source that they said the court order was a tissue paper that it doesn’t hold water and they went ahead and constituted Care-taker Committees against the court order and constitution of the Market.

It is unfortunate that this happened under the democratic dispensation of Anambra State and we deemed it necessary to bring attention of the Governor on what is happening perhaps he might not be aware as well as to make the public hear what might likely cause crises in the Market.

Now, nobody is very sure what might happen in the Market in the next days. Form 48 has been served to the names raised as the Care-taker Committees and perhaps in few days Form 49 will be equally issues to them. 

We the aspirants said, it is very bad  that a government that came in the democratic setting would not wish another democratic leaders to come up. We demand that the election should be conducted in the electronic Market. There is no crises in the Market that could warrant Care-taker Committees. The issue is that the tenure of the executives have expired and our constitution stipulated that the new election would be conducted so that new leaders would emerge to oversee the affairs of the Union for the next four years. So, the issue of setting up Care-taker is uncalled for.

The Market was built through people’s effort not government but we wonder what could be the interest of the government and those who are in the corridors of power and been used to install Care-taker in their Market. No written invitation has given to them to come and install Care-taker committees for us. No issue of violence. We wonder what prompted Care-taker committees”

He continued saying that Government should assist them to conduct election” In the past when we wanted to conduct election, we invite government to come and supervise us and not to impose whoever they want to us whether those people are members of the Market or not”

He recalled that successive administrations in the state obeyed court order” There are past court rulings which former Governor Peter Obi and former Governor Obiano respected. I do not know why anybody that comes into the Anambra State Government should have interest in our Market ?

What we desire in our Market is outright election and not Care-taker Committees. We are begging Governor Soludo to respect court order even though they said court order was tissue paper that could not hold water and it is very unfortunate for some government officials like Commissioner for Trade, Commence and Industry to say such a thing.

The Governor might not be aware. We are making this appeal directly to him. Governor is a Man I respect. He is a Man I hold in high esteem” Nze declared

Similarly, the assistant Secretary aspirant, Mr. Chinedu. P. Njoku stated that Governor Soludo should respect court order and their Market constitution” If Government disobeys the court order which I know nobody is above the law. But, if eventually they disobeys the court order, there should be civil disobedience and crises in the Market. What we want is democratic election” He posited.