Why we are demolishing markets in Ebonyi – Uzor

Chief Emmanuel Uzor is Special Assistant to Governor Dave Umahi on Food and Vegetable Market Development, Capital City, Poultry and Estate Development. In this interview, he reveals why the state government demolished oldest markets in Abakaliki, Ebonyi State capital, UCHENNA INYA reports

How did the Abakaliki main market also known as Abakpa main market came to be?

The defunct Abakpa main market is one of the biggest market in south and the biggest market in Ebonyi state and that was before the advent of the international market which was constructed by the present administration in the state. It used to be the major market where almost all the commodities were being sold. It was a market that was conceived by our forefathers because it predates even the creation of Ebonyi state. Before Ebonyi was created, Abakpa market was already in existence. So, it was a market that was formed by our elite traders in those days who saw the potentials of making a good money within the urban area.

But what happened was that those our fore fathers that came that bought this land originally from the owners, the Nkaliki people, it was a land that was inhabited and even cultivated on by the Izzi people. so, some of them got the land may be by patronage or by trade by batter. They had a small market there, Adol-Awam was a local government Chairman who came and felt that there was need to have a modern market to develop it further from the original owners who were trading on the land.

He built structures there in a modern ways and leased it to traders. When Ebonyi state was created and master plan for Abakaliki the capital city designed, the market was already in existence before the master plan came. So, along the line during the master plan, it felt inside the residential area.

So, successive administration felt it was very difficult to move the market. But when the present administration came on board, there was nothing that was very impossible because already, there was already an alternative for the traders and that was the international market,that was easy for the government to order the traders to relocate to a much modern facility, the international market. It was a battle that the first administration fought and lost.

The second administration under Elechi fought it and lost too and this present administration came on board and fought and won. The secret is because there was already an alternative; the international market was ready for the traders. So, they had no difficulties in moving. When they moved, it now became necessary for the government to pull the structures at the Abakpa main market down and put it into another use.

We learnt that some traders at the Abakpa main market died in the process of moving to the International market. Where there measures put in place by the state government to cushion the effects of the movement?

People die every day in Nigeria, the hardship is too much. But all I know is that there were measures put in place to cushion the effects of the agonies you said the traders passed through. And let me tell you, anybody that is moving into a place from another place will pass through such. It is not easy to move to a place, even when you finish your own house, to move from your Landlord’s house to your own new house is always very difficult. In fact, in my own case, my wife had to move when I was finding it very difficult to move.

I was in the office, I went home in the evening and I didn’t see her and my children. I called her on phone to know where they are and she told me we are in your new house o, when you are hungry, you come and eat since you don’t want us to move into our own house.

For me, it was something cumbersome for me to start moving. We put measures to cushion the agonies the traders were passing through trying to move. We told most of them who didn’t have money for shops at the international market to move and occupy spaces and that was why all of them went out and they got shops at the international market.

We are building a very big open market inside the international market where those who don’t have money for shops will be selling vegetables and that is where we are selling a square meter at N20,000 for N500,000 and it becomes your own for life. We made sure we accommodated every trader including recharge card sellers.

Some traders at the defunct Abakaliki main market went to court to challenge relocation to international market. What later happened?

Nobody went to court because nobody owns the building; they belong to government, it belong to local government. What happened was that there was a lease and some of them their lease expired in 2013, some 2003. What they did was that they kept on renewing the thing and part of the agreement in the lease was that the government reserves the right to take back their land whenever they want for whatever developmental purpose. Some of them that went to court that time didn’t go to court because they were dragging the property.

They went to court because quit notice issued to them to move out of the market and relocate to the international market was not favorable to them and some of them had this argument that if I have five shops in this Abakpa market, I should be given five shops in the international and government said the two markets are not the same thing, the international market is a modern international market and having shops in the Abakpa main market won’t give you automatic ownership of shops in the international market, since you have shops at the Abakpa market, go and buy shops at the international market. If you don’t have money to buy, rent, when you get money you pay. So, that was why they went to court and not that they were dragging the land because you don’t drag what you don’t have.

What is the next line of action after the demolition of the market which is currently ongoing?

The next thing is that we are going to have two things here. One is that we are creating a recreational park here where we will have cinema hall, a night-D game and other sweet things that will make life meaningful for the residents of this area. We are going to have a very good estate here for a low income earners. It is going to be built by the state government for our people to live. It will have facilities; it will have roads, it will have constant light, it will have a police post, it will a police post and it will have a small market where we will be selling foodstuffs for people around here.

There are adjoining buildings that will be around the Estate that government is planning to build in this place. Don’t you think it will deface the Estate?

What we will do is that after the enumeration, we will do what we call integrity tests on all the buildings that are around here that are privately owned. When we check a building, if it passes integrity test, we will now tell the owner look at what we want to use here to do, it’s either you re-model your building to confirm with what we are doing here or you can sell it to somebody who can do that if you don’t have money to re-model it. It is going to be a business for the owners. For instance, if we build a model house here, it serves as a model and anybody who owns land here, all he needs to do is to build his own to look like that of the government. So, that’s what we are going to do but those ones that are unpardonable, we will revoke the land and pull it down.

Most of the buildings within this defunct market are commercial houses. Will these buildings still continue as commercial buildings?

With the movement of the market, we expect all the buildings that were being used initially for commercial purpose to return back to residential. They turned them to commercial buildings because of the proximity of the market but now the market is no longer here, what are they going to do? What they are going to do is re-model their buildings back to original residential buildings which they were made for.

After the relocation of traders, the defunct Abakaliki main market became a place for all manner of criminal activities. Is it part of the reasons government is demolishing the market?

DSS and other security agencies in the state, at a time started complaining about some criminal activities occasioned by some structures here; ranging from phone snatching, rape and other criminalities. What criminals do is that when they snatch your phone or bag, they will run into this place and once they enter here, you can’t even pursue them because the market is so big. But now it is demolished, if you are running, everybody will see you. Even those who live around the market have been complaining about criminal activities around the area. So, this demolition is going to give them relief. The demolition of this market would have happened earlier. We waited to have all the legal backing so that nobody will feel cheated, we would have demolished the market even that week the traders left.

How much is government planning to spend on this project- the proposed estate?

We are going to have two new estates in the metropolis. This one is going to be phase one of it, we are having a similar project at Ekwulumili where we had a defunct regional market and it is as big as this place. We are also going to demolish that place and that one becomes phase two. So, we looking at N3bn to have modern estates; phase one and phase two in Abakaliki. For this phase one, we are expecting 500 units of buildings, then the other one we are expecting 700 units of buildings.