Tension in Anambra market as leadership tussle tears stakeholders apart

Crisis has erupted at Ose-Okwodu, one of the 32 markets whose leaderships were recently sacked and replaced with caretaker committees by Anambra state governor, Chukwuma Soludo.

The battle, Blueprint gathered, is between the new caretaker committee chairman of the market, Chief Ikechukwu Umeanozie and his Vice, Chief Okechukwu Chukwuemeka, including the immediate past Chairman, Chief Anthony Onwuetiaka.

Umeanozie alleged that the two through their actions, bent on frustrating his administration by inciting some traders against his office, are parading themselves as leaders of unions (zones 4 and 1) respectively even when their tenures had ended.

“I constituted caretaker committee chairmen to replace Okechukwu Chukwuemeka in zone 4 and Anthony Onwuetiaka in zone 1 because their tenures have elapsed. Members of the zones wrote petitions against them and I moved on to forestall possible crisis. We also need government approval to get Onwuetiaka to account for the N2,400 sanitation levies he collected from traders,” he added.

But the immediate past chairman of Ose-Okwodu market, Hon. Anthony Onwuetiaka, denied the allegations, adding that he had been remitting the sanitation levies he collected from traders to government as instructed.

He further maintained that his successor (the new caretaker chairman) lacked constitutional power to remove him and others from various zones (unions) they were still heading, and appealed to governor Soludo to replace him in order to prevent possible breakdown of law and order.

On his part, Chief Okechukwu Chukwuemeka, who explained that his tenure in the zone 4 was still running, urged governor Soludo to call him (Umeanozie) to order, because according to him, he ignores other committee members and also uses taskforce and security to intimidate opposing voices in the market.