BY DAYO JOHNSON
AKURE — FOR hours, market  women in Akure, the OndoState capital in their hundreds protested against the continued closure of the markets in respect of the late Deji of Akureland, Oba Adebiyi Adesida, yesterday.

The Akure-in-Council had a week ago directed that all the markets and shops across the Akure metropolis be closed as a sign of respect for the late Oba.

However, the seven-day stay-at-home order by the traditional chiefs lapsed yesterday and both commercial and business activities resumed across the state capital.

The protesting market women, yesterday.

While other shop owners where allowed to open their shops to customers, those in the Erekesan market were driven away.

The youths who said they were acting on the order of the Akure chiefs insisted that the Erekesan  market falls under the traditional Obas Market and would not be opened until another Oba ascends the throne.

But the women who marched through the popular Oba Adesida Road resisted the youths and for over three hours caused traffic gridlock on the major road.

They blocked the roads with their make-shift sheds, stones and wares and rolled on the floor, crying that they could not fend for their children in the last one week.

Their spokesperson, Madam Atibioke, said the Erekesan Market was divided into three, and that only one falls under the Obas market.

Atibioke said owners of the two other markets should be allowed to operate without molestation.

According to her, many of them had borrowed money from different micro credit banks and would have to pay back  shortly.

She pleaded with the chiefs to consider their plight moreso that the Christmas and new year are around the corner.

But the traditional chief who addressed them declined, saying it is a taboo for Oba market to operate when there is no Oba on the throne.

Police Commissioner Patrick Dokumor  and the traditional chiefs, including the Lisa of Akureland, High Chief James Olusoga, who addressed the women failed to persuade them to call off the protest.

The women who sat on the road called on Governor Olusegun Mimiko to come to their aid.

Some commissioners, including that of the Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs, Bamidele Dada and his Lands and Housing counterpart, Bade Omoloja later addressed the women.

Some of the women, however, agreed to relocate to the DemocracyPark while others insisted they were going to force the gate of the market open.

Meanwhile, normalcy has returned to the state capital as some of the market women have returned to their homes while others still mill round the entrances of the  Erekesan Market.“