A trader at the Onitsha Main Market, Gibson Okafor, has explained why many traders still avoid opening their shops on Mondays, despite repeated assurances of security by the Anambra State Government.
Gatekeepers News reports that Governor Chukwuma Soludo had on Monday ordered the closure of the Onitsha Main Market for one week, citing what he described as traders’ compliance with the sit-at-home order enforced by non-state actors.
The governor also warned that failure by traders to reopen after the one-week shutdown would result in further closures.
Speaking on Channels Television’s The Morning Brief on Wednesday, Okafor said the problem was not the absence of security inside the market, but the lack of protection on major access routes.
“The governor promised security, but only what he will do, because some people are coming from Nkpor, Asaba, and other areas. They need transporters to operate and security along the routes so traders can come to the market.
“If they don’t see security men and transporters, they can’t come to the market. Everything has to be in order so that traders would have the means to reach the market. The governor promised us that — that is what I heard from them — but we haven’t seen it,” he said.
Okafor also appealed to the state government to ensure that commercial banks operate on Mondays, stressing that customers cannot transact without access to cash.
“Governor Soludo has put security everywhere, but for the Monday sit-at-home, they have to increase it and tell the banks to open. When the banks are closed, our customers won’t come to the market because they don’t have money to buy goods — that’s the problem,” he stated.
‘Anambra loses ₦8bn every Monday’
Also on the programme, the Anambra State Commissioner for Information, Law Mefoh, revealed that the state loses about ₦8 billion every Monday due to the sit-at-home practice.
According to him, the situation has badly affected the socio-economic life of the state.
“Statistics have it that Anambra is losing an average of ₦8 billion every Monday that the market is shut,” Mefoh said.
He insisted that the government was right to take decisive action, describing the resistance to the governor’s directive as harmful.
“Those who are opposing it are simply being mischievous. That is why the governor rightly called it economic sabotage,” he added.
