• …Gives reasons why private markets can’t exist in the Kingdom

In the original traditional African society and culture, and even today, to a very large extent, private ownership of the market is an aberration and something not heard of. It is probably for this reason that the Issele-Uku Kingdom, headquarters of Aniocha North Local Government Area of Delta State, through her ruler, HRM, Agbogidi Obi Nduka (MNSE), the Obi of Issele-Uku Kingdom, recently refused to allow one to be set up in the Kingdom.

At a final meeting on May 22, 2020, at the Issele-Uku Royal Palace, the Royal Father inconsonant with the entire Kingdom frowned at the plans of a certain woman who claimed to have bought a piece of land and wanted to convert it to a private market.

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The revered traditional ruler who said it was an insult to the community and an attempt to desecrate the land, ruled that the market cannot be situated in the town and subsequently ordered the prospective proprietress to forthwith move away from the place.

Obi Nduka cited various reasons why private markets cannot exist in Issele-Uku without traditional procedural modalities and consensus of the people of Issele-Uku. First, according to the Obi, Issele-Uku people hold their Afor market in high esteem, and can never cave into any pressure from any quarter for any illegal market to be set up, insisting there are traditional reasons for not allowing any other market in the town except the Afor market, or as may be decided by the community.

The Obi said the people of Issele-Uku ascribe so much traditional respect to their Afor market. “It is something that has been held sacred for centuries by our forefathers and had never been broken by anybody, not to talk of strangers.”

He also cited security reasons, saying the land in question is located along the Benin-Asaba Expressway where armed bandits had regularly kidnapped people and terrorized the community.

Moreover, Obi said the land belongs to the community and had been designated for development. All the land located from the Ministry of Works to Costain area in that axis, he said, belonged to the community and wondered why anybody would sell it to anyone for the purpose of bringing in people that were dislodged from Abraka market for breach of security.

The Obi of Issele-Uku also used the medium to appreciate everybody who tried in one way or the other to intervene in the matter. He, therefore, warned those who trespass on community land to desist from such act or face the full wrath of the law.

Vanguard