Governor Chukwuma Soludo of Anàmbra State has been urged to urgently prevail on his Special Adviser on Market, Evaristus Ubah, to stop further harassment and intimidation of Chief Sabest Uzoeto, the managing director of Ezinwanne Shopping Mall, at No 39 Silas Works Road, Onitsha and the widows carrying out their legitimate businesses at the mall.
Addressing newsmen in his office weekend, Sabest said he started business at the premises in 2016 and incorporated it with the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC), as well as obtained a Certificate of Occupancy (CofO) from the Anambra State Government for the property housing the business.
He said when the State Government directed all the vegetable and fruit sellers along the Expressway to vacate some weeks back, some women, mostly widows joined them in the Plaza at No 39 Silas Works Road, Fegge, Onitsha to continue their trading to make ends meet for their families.
But according to him, the Special Adviser and his team on January 12, 2024, stormed the place, and attacked them, beating, maiming, and shooting indiscriminately.
“In the process, some traders sustained various degrees of injuries. One of them is currently hospitalized.
“The Special Adviser insisted that the women must relocate to Ogbaru but if they must stay back, they should not buy fruits like Watermelon, Cucumber, and others from North, rather they should buy from those at Ogbaru Fruit market, behind Power Mike Stadium before moving them to the plaza.
“This mall is purely private, not a Government mall or market and both the women and myself have our fundamental rights according to Chapter 4, Section 33 to 44 of the 1999 Constitution as amended, to carry out our legitimate businesses as law-abiding citizens.
“I have been buying the same product from the North and Delta states respectively in bulk quantity. Why would someone forcefully compel me to start buying from a third party, especially at an “arrange Power Mike
local market in Ogbaru local government Area”? he queried.
Sabest, while acknowledging that the Governor’s directive was to flush out those trading along the Expressway, wondered why his aide was coming to his mall.
He said; “We are not on the road. We are inside the town and in the Mall.
“We don’t constitute any environmental hazard since we clear the drainage system every week and sweep inside the mall at the end of business activities every day.
“So, all these malls in Onitsha and Asaba, Government officials would tell them the type of goods to deal with and where to buy them. What type of monopoly do they want to impose on these poor widows in a free market cum capitalist economy?”.
In a related development, the Anambra Markets Elders Forum (EMEF) has warned the Special Adviser on Market, to desist from further harassment and intimidation of Sabest and the Women trading in the mall, situated at 39 Silas Works Road, Fegge, Onitsha.
In a statement issued in Onitsha, the group cautioned the leadership and operatives of the Ocha Brigade not to allow themselves to be used to oppress widows who are engaged in legitimate means of earning their living.
The statement signed by the chairman of the forum, High Chief Uzoma Anunihu, said they heard that the SA had threatened to return in full force on Tuesday, February 6, 2024.
They warned that they should not attempt it because if they do, the women and human rights community in the State would stage the mother of all protests in the State.
They called on Governor Soludo to use his good offices to prevail on what they called ‘the excesses and personal agenda of his Special Adviser on the Market’, who they alleged, has continued to pose a serious threat to his second-term ambition in 2025 by his alleged inglorious and unfriendly dispositions.
