By Ugochukwu Alaribe, Aba

ABA, the acclaimed Enyimba City and commercial capital of Abia State was in the news recently, albeit for the wrong reasons. No fewer than 20 persons sustained varying degrees of injury in a fracas that resulted from the forcible eviction of some traders from the Highlife area of the city by the Aba Urban Renewal, AUR Committee.

Aba Urban Renewal Committee, headed by a Special Adviser to the Governor, Mr. Solomon Ogunji, was set up by the Abia State government to demolish structures built on roads, drainage channels and pedestrian walk ways as part of efforts to restore the lost glory of the city.

Trouble started for the traders when the AUR team stormed the Highlife area spanning Clifford, School, Ehi and Cameroun Roads, including the main gate of the Enyimba International Stadium, to enforce an order directing street traders to relocate to the Good Morning Market along Ngwa Road.

Relocation order: According to Ogunji, the traders at the Highlife area were severally directed to relocate to the Good Morning Market as the government banned trading on roads, streets, drainage channels and pedestrian walkways, but they kept defying the order.

Enforcement of ban

•A bus damaged in the fracas

 When the team went to enforce the ban, they were resisted by the traders, including butchers stationed at School Road near the entrance of the Enyimba Stadium. Some of the traders who spoke to Vanguard Features, VF, accused the AUR team of setting their wares ablaze and inflicting injuries on them when they attempted to recover their wares from the fire.

In the melee, business operators and shop owners were forced to close down even as youths mounted road blocks at Azikiwe by Adazi junction, leading to the market.

Eyewitnesses told VF that some youths from both sides wielded machetes, axes and other dangerous weapons. When the fracas died down, it was found that a Toyota Camry car belonging to an AUR official, a tricycle and two motorcycles had been burnt, while over 20 persons sustained injuries. They were still receiving medical attention at various hospitals as at press time.

Soldiers were also seen patrolling Clifford, Ehi and School roads which were the theatres of the incident, while several policemen patrolled the city centre. Some of the traders who spoke to journalists accused the Committee of engaging thugs who destroyed their wares.

Speaking on the incident, one of the traders, Ifeanyi Godwin said: “It all started last Wednesday when we were doing our businesses. The Aba Urban Renewal people arrived with some boys and started pouring fuel on our goods. That did not go down well with us, but we tried to find out the reasons for their actions. They asked us to go over to the Good Morning Market. We refused to do anything further but to consult our market leaders.

The next day, they came again after some people had collected N120 daily ticket and started destroying our goods again. We don’t know what happened between the team and a trader which resulted to a fight and in the process, their Tricycle and a Toyota Camry car they came with were set ablaze”.

Another trader who declined to have his name in print, said: “Many were injured and were rushed to different hospitals. We lost cash and other valuables in the process.

Security officials

Some of us who tried going into the market to salvage our goods were stopped by security officials, while the Urban Renewal people were led to this area by men of the Abia State Vigilante Services”

No notice: The traders also denied they were given enough notice before the Aba Urban Renewal Committee stormed the area to enforce the order. Appealing to Govenor Okezie Ikpeazu to call the members of the Committee to order,they said: “Nobody has asked us to leave this area before now. The only time government tried it was during Chief Theodore Orji’s administration and we later resolved the situation. The Aba Urban Renewal officials suddenly surfaced from nowhere, told us to go to the Good Morning Market and started burning our goods. Since Governor Ikpeazu came into office, nobody has asked us to leave this place”.

An AUR official who preferred anonymity dismissed the claims of the traders as false. “We gave them enough notice. If you allow them, they will continue to plead for more time.

Some of them pleaded that we should allow them to stay since the year has almost ended. If you allow them, they will continue giving one excuse or another.

Banning of street trading

They are street traders and should find shops in the market. The government has banned street trading,” he said.

 Good Morning Market— uninhabitable with dilapidated access roads

A cross section of traders who spoke to VF  on why they are yet to comply with the order to relocate to the market, said the Good Morning Market is yet to be fully developed and lacks facilities to accommodate the horde of traders expected to relocate to the area.

Again, all the access roads – Ngwa Road by East, Emelogu, Etche, Danfodio and Pepple’s roads leading to the market, are in deplorable conditions. They also lamented that the area is unsafe for commercial activities since drug dealers and addicts who were sacked from their former abode at York Street by men of the National Drug Law Enforcement, NDLEA, now do business in the vicinity.

Lawmaker visits victims: Meanwhile, the member representing Aba North/ Aba South Federal Constituency in the House of Representatives, Ossy Prestige recently visited the injured traders at the hospital where they are receiving medical attention.

Prestige condemned the use of live ammunition by security agents and also faulted traders for taking the laws into their hands. According to him, both government and the traders should always seek more civil and legal means of executing their actions and presenting their grievances. He however promised to assist the injured victims.

One of the victims who identified himself as Goodluck Osas said he was shot in the crotch, while Chidiebere Ugochukwu sustained an injury that looked like a deep machete cut in his hands. Ifeanyi Okechukwu said he was shot in the thigh while Chinecherem William said he was wounded in his left hand.

Appeal to Gov. Ikpeazu

Some of the traders used the opportunity to appeal to the Governor to call the committee to order. “We want to use this opportunity to appeal to the Abia State Governor, Dr. Okezie Ikpeazu to call Ogunji to order because he is going to cause people to hate him (governor).”

Abia govt sues for traders’ cooperation

•A Toyota Camry belonging to the AUR

Reacting to the incident and the accompanying protest by traders, the Abia State Government  appealed to them (traders) and residents of Aba to cooperate with government agents in their efforts to sanitise and bring decorum to the city and its markets and desist from actions that could lead to confrontation with authorised government agents.

In a statement signed by the Chief Press Secretary to the Governor, Mr. Godwin Adindu, the government said it is on a mission of bringing back the lost glory of Aba. “Government wants to reemphasise that the mission of sanitising Aba and reinventing the ancient city, which is being executed through the Aba Urban Renewal Office, is one cardinal policy thrust which the current administration is pursuing with passion, dedication and every sense of duty.

Sense of duty

Therefore, the street traders must adhere to the government directive to relocate to the newly constructed Good Morning Market, along East Street, by Ngwa Road,” the government spokesman said, adding that enough shops have been constructed at the Good Morning Market by the Aba South Local Government Area to accommodate traders who have been directed to relocate to the market.

Ethnic sentiments: Some of the traders alleged ethnic sentiments in the manner the enforcement was executed. They accused Ngwa indigenes of trying to dislodge stranger elements in Aba. Speaking on the situation, a chieftain of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP,  Chief Friday Nwosu, condemned the fracas between the traders and the Aba Urban Renewal team which led to the destruction of property. He maintained that the fracas could have been avoided if government officials had employed more tact by carrying out sufficient sensitisation visits to the area.

According to him, government officials should be humane while carrying out their duties. “I’m worried about the ethnic colouration being ascribed to the relocation of traders. The impression is that the Ngwa people are fighting with non-indigenes in Aba, but this is untrue. The Ngwa people are peace loving and hospitable. Every Igbo man living in Aba should be treated as an indigene. People should not behave as if non-indigenes who established businesses in Aba made a mistake. It is wrong for people to wake up and see their places of business pulled down without adequate notice. Traders should cooperate with the government to better their lots while the latter should be humane in its policies and programmes. People must be carried along in government policies because their welfare is the primary reason for the existence of government,” he said

Existence of government

Also reacting to the allegation of ethnic witch-hunt, the Abia State Government advised residents of the state against the propaganda being peddled by some disgruntled elements that the exercise is targeted against non-indigenes. “Aba is a melting pot for all ethnic nationalities in the country. Aba does not only belong to Abians, it belongs to Nigerians and the world.

Governor Ikpeazu is rebuilding a new city for the world. Political jobbers and enemies of the state who are cashing in on this sanitation exercise to generate crisis and foment trouble are well advised to rethink.

They must desist from acts and statements capable of inciting Aba residents against one another and causing the breach of the prevailing peace in the land,” the government said.

As at the time VF visited the Highlife area,  de-silting of drainage channels and demolition of illegal structures were ongoing. However, the Abia State government appears to have heard the cries of the traders on the dilapidated state of the Good Morning Market and its access roads.

A source told VF  that rehabilitation works may soon commence on the roads leading to the market. The State Commissioner for Works, Mr. Eziuche Ubani, recently visited the area to assess the situation with a view to rehabilitating the roads.