No fewer than 200 traders have alerted the Abia State government and the Police over an alleged threat to raze their shops in 1st Line, Umuahia Industrial Market, Ahiaeke Ndume.
Protesting peacefully against the threat at the Nvosi country home of the governor, Dr Alex Otti, in Isiala Ngwa South local government area, they accused Umuchukwu Ihie-Ndume Ibeku community of being behind the plot.
But in a response, the government assured them that it would intervene immediately to end the situation satisfactorily, even though it said that was the first time it had heard about it.
In an address, Pastor Daniel Obi, chairman of the Timber Section of the line, explained that they came to inform the governor about the threat and solicit his “intervention into the matter of urgency.”
He said the threat was issued at the expiration of a quit notice the community served them in May after obtaining a judgement over the ownership of the land the shops are built on against the government.
Obi further said they were surprised that instead of taking the matter up with the government, which allocated the land to them, “the community resorted to threatening innocent and law-abiding citizens over the land”.
He argued that it was wrong of the community to attempt “to quit us because it was the government that allocated the land to us and we have been paying our annual rates to the government”.
“We’re legal occupiers of the land and have our allocation papers. If the community has any problems over the land with the government, it should settle it with the government and stop disturbing us,” Obi added.
Contributing, his counterpart of the Building Materials Section, Mr James Onyema, recalled how a similar threat to two sections of the market was ignored and the traders ended up losing their shops.
“As we speak now, those sections are no longer part of the market. You can only see residential buildings there. The traders kept quiet and that is why they’re no longer there,” he said.
“We don’t want what happened to owners of those shops to happen to us. We are not illegal occupiers. We want His Excellency’s intervention into this matter and settled it,” he maintained.
Similarly, one of the shop owners, CSP Austin Nwosu (Rtd), said the market belongs to the government, which allocated the land to them, and as such, the community has nothing to do with them over the land.
Therefore, he argued that, according to the Land Use Act of 1978, every piece of land in the country belongs to the government and that when the government acquires any part, it pays compensation to the source.
“In this case, the government must have done the needful before allocating the land to us, so if the community has issues over the land, they should go to the government, not us,” the retired police officer asserted.
The traders carried placards with various inscriptions such as, “Our action, governor!
Our shops should not be allowed to be destroyed by arsonists who want to return the state to the dark ages.”
Addressing the traders, the chief of protocol to the governor, Mr Uche Nwosu, lauded the traders for their peaceful disposition, stating that their complaints would be discussed with the concerned ministries.
