BY ANAYO OKOLI

ABIA State Government has said that it carried along the traders in the markets being relocated to new places, explaining that they were in the picture of the programme right from the inception of the idea of the relocation the markets.

The government said the pockets of protests were expected as part of human nature but insisted that it  took the traders into confidence before the relocation exercise commenced.

There had been protests from some traders who were resisting the relocation plan.

According to the Special Adviser to Governor Theodore Orji on Project Monitoring, Sir Pat Mgbemena, it is natural for human beings to resist change but “government will appeal to them to cooperate and move into the new markets ones they are ready”.

Mgbemena, who is also the chairman of Industrial Market Relocation Committee, explained that the new markets would be in the best interest of the traders, and expressed hope that when the markets are ready and they move in, they would see the benefit and definitely appreciate the government’s vision.