By Emmanuel Ayungbe

UYO—TRADERS affected by the recent demolition carried out by officials of Uyo Capital City Development Authority, UCCDA,in Uyo, Akwa Ibom State capital, have threatened to take the state government to court over last week’s demolition exercise.

Some of the traders who spoke to Vanguard said they have already paid three years advance rent for the shops  to the market management committee and were never told that the shops were illegal structures.

They vowed to seek legal redress to compel the state government and Uyo Local Government council to pay compensation to affected traders whom they said have lost millions of naira.

Mr Essien Itama, whose shop was destroyed at Urua Enin Market, by University of Uyo, questioned the rationale behind the government’s action, wondering why the state government did not give shop owners pre-demolition notice to enable the traders evacuate their goods.

According to him: “This market is a community market. It is not situated in the city centre. The officials of UCCDA came here with machetes and axes as if they were going to war, just to demolish a community market. We are still studying the next line of action. We have consulted our lawyers. We will take the state government and Uyo Local Government Council to court to claimed damages

Speaking on her loss, a female trader in the popular, Akpan Andem Market, Mrs Rose Archibong, lamented that all the goods she bought with funds sourced from a local money lender have been destroyed by the officials of UCCDA.

Archibong lamented: “The most painful thing is that they carried out the exercise when we were still at home observing the state government mandatory monthly environmental sanitation exercise.

“As we speak, most of the traders have developed heart attack. We even received the report that some of the people selling here collapsed when they heared the news of the demolition of their shops. Where are we going to start from? How do we pay back the loans we took to start this business?

“They didn’t give us information that they would demolish the shops, we would have removed our goods. Government has been collecting levies from us here, we never knew it was illegal structure according to them.”