The surging sea of heads after the Ogige Market demolition. Photo: Enugu State Government House File
By Harrison Ogara
I made this memo to draw the attention of government to the dangers of evicting over 7000 traders from Ogige Nsukka Market without any alternative market to relocate them. As I speak, these traders with market value of over N10 billion have moved their wares to their homes because there are no alternative markets.
As at the last I checked, the Aku Road market was essentially conceptualised by the then Nsukka Local government under Barrister Tony Ugwu to be a GSM market with Less than 150 shops. It is then surprising that that was where the “Ahithophels” of our time wrongly advised the Enugu government to move the thousands of traders to.
The worst anybody close to His Excellency could do to him is to continue to sycophantically advise him to shut his eyes against the impending catastrophe and deaths that could be recorded in time to come because of this singular action. The current chaotic situation at Ogige Market currently is better imagined than experienced.
Inside the market, there are thousands who are just traders as well as tenants. There are thousands who picked facilities from the nearby community banks to stock up these shops, paying back as they make sales. If we compensate the shop owners, what do we do to the displaced traders who feed from their daily incomes?
It is even more scorching when we learnt that these traders in the past few months have paid 25k as yearly taxes to government. If we knew we will be demolishing the market, why did we force them to pay the tax for the year 2024. My advise was that government could release fund, go to Ikpa market some three kilometres away from town and get the market fixed for the traders to move in.
The other suggestion I made was that to avoid heavy collateral damage, an interchange like this will not be too good inside the town. Opi junction (the gateway to the North) with a large expanse of land could have made more sense to serve vehicles coming to and from the Northern region and other parts of Nigeria.
It is dangerous to continue to urge the government on, on an issue as delicate as this. It will certainly be an act of cowardice if I decide to keep mum in the face of the impending tragedies that may follow an action such as this. I salute you all. Hon. Harrison Ogara, Member, representing Igbo Eze South
