Friday 25 October 2013

Displaced Umuahia market traders relocate to streets

Many traders displaced from the
Umuahia main market following its closure four
days ago have relocated to major streets in the
state capital. The market was relocated to Ubani Ibeku, near
Umuahia, by the state government as part its
efforts to give Umuahia a facelift. The affected traders, who still loiter around the
market along Umuwaya Road, include squatters
and petty traders, who usually displayed their
wares within the market area and along the rail
line. A cross-section of the traders told reporters on
Friday that the relocation of the market had
crippled their businesses and caused untold
hardships to their families. According to them, a shop goes for N400, 000 for
traders who owned shops in the old market and
N500, 000 for those who did not own any. They, however, claimed that they did not have the
money to make installmental payment of N120,
000 per shop at the new market. Mr Innocent Ogbu, a second-hand cloth trader,
said the relocation was laudable, but ‘’ill-timed’’. ‘’Government should have allowed us to finish the
Christmas season before relocating the market. ‘’As you can see, my capital is not up to N120,
000, so we are in a state of uncertainty over the
relocation’’, he said. Corroborating Ogbu, a yam dealer, who identified
herself simply as ‘’Nkechi’’, said that the
relocation had worsened her health condition as
her wares were parked in an open place in her
residence. ‘’My health condition has worsened since Monday
because of the closure of the market. “I have no money to get a shop in the new
market and above all, the new market is not ready
yet so I parked my yams in my compound. ‘’Government should have waited until the new
market has been fully completed so that traders
who paid for shops at Ubani Ibeku will move
straight into their new shops’’, she said. Mr Anya Ndukwe, an undergraduate, whose
mother was affected by the order, said that the
relocation posed a serious economic challenge to
his widowed-mother. Ndukwe said that his mother depended on her
petty trading to fend for the family and his
university education and that the situation would
affect their means of livelihood. ‘’The market is our only source of livelihood and
now my mother’s wares are dumped in our small
apartment. We find it difficult to survive. ‘’If the universities reopen today, I will find it
difficult to go back because my mother cannot
afford the money need to return to school’’, he
said. (NAN)

1 comment:

  1. YoBit lets you to claim FREE CRYPTO-COINS from over 100 different crypto-currencies, you complete a captcha once and claim as many as coins you want from the available offers.

    After you make about 20-30 claims, you complete the captcha and keep claiming.

    You can click on CLAIM as much as 50 times per one captcha.

    The coins will stored in your account, and you can convert them to Bitcoins or USD.

    ReplyDelete