By Our Correspondent
Sapele main market traders have debunked report in one of the Local Newspapers in the state with the title “ Sapele Market: Okowa orders traders to vacate stores until the market is complete construction,” saying that it is a false rumour making round.
The traders who reacted to the publication through one of their members Comrade Oritsematosa Gogomeje explained that when the Governor visited, he went straight to the contractor handling the construction of the last phase of the market, Primi Constrution Company Ltd who explained to him the extent he had gone so far with the job, and the governor expressed satisfaction with him for doing a nice job.
They noted that “the Governor did not make remark like that, rather he asked the women who explained to him that most of them paid money yet no store has been allocated to them to go and collect their money from whoever they have paid to. The Governor did not asked them to collect their money and relocate from the market.”
Comrade Gogomeje told the traders that there is no alarm whatsoever asking “if the Governor said we should leave, where are we leaving to? These things are just mere rumours. The women should go about their normal businesses because the Governor is a good leader who listen to the cry of the common man.
“He just told us that the last phase under construction will be allocated to new traders upon completion and nothing else. These were the words of the Governor,” Comrade Gogomeje said.
He noted further that it was one of the politicians in Sapele that asked the Governor to greet the trader as he was about going back, adding that “it was at that point the Governor turned around to greet the women with the assurance that the last phase will be allocated to them as soon as the project is over. This was what the Governor said and they were happy with him before he left.
The traders noted further that it was the same politician from Sapele serving at Asaba who has been advising the Governor to drive them away, pointing out that the Governor is a good man that has a listening ears and will never allow them to suffer unjustly because one influential politician in the area is playing politics with the whole arrangement.
They added that during the last regime of Dr. Emmanuel Uduaghan, the Governor allocated stores to them (traders) after they had paid into the Government bank account Warri (Sterling bank) before stores where allocated to them within the completed phases.
They explained further that since the beginning of this administration, the alleged politician in Sapele has been chasing them away from the market with his boys which prompted the market executive officers to drag the government to court restraining them from removing the traders from their stores pending the determination of
the matters at the court and since the present governor is very educated and full of wisdom who will not allow his government to be rubbished by selfishness, he will never disobey the court by supressing the people of Sapele.
They appealed to the governor whom they said they have absolute confidence in, to allow the rule of law to prevail by waiting for the decision of the court before he takes whatever decision he has in mind genuinely not under cohesion. They also appealed that “those who have been allotted stores before now be allowed to continue their trading since they have nowhere to fall back to, more importantly since their caravans in various location in town where destroyed by the previous administration.”
