By Juliana Nwachukwu
The Caretaker Committee Chairman, Onitsha Main Market, Anambra State, Chief Innocent Ezeoha Ezennia has extended the market hours from 5 pm to 6 pm daily to cover up the paralysed business activities on Mondays due to the sit-at-home.
Fielding questions from newsmen in his office at Onitsha, he said that this step became necessary in view of the need for the traders to have more time to do their business and relax.
“Formerly the traders will be in a hurry because we closed by 5 pm but now it is 6 pm, to enable them and their customers to have enough time to transact their business.”
On the cleanliness of the market as directed by the state government, he said “We have two standard trucks for evacuation of refuse in the market and personnel who we pay and they clean the market both morning and evening.
“We cleared the roads/streets in the market such that three vehicles can pass in a space of three lanes without obstruction. The previous administrations were not able to decongest Johnson street. I was the one that decongested it and sacked the touts in the market.
“Some of these touts are graduates and what we did was to convert most of them to be apprentice traders, so that after learning the trade, they will start their own.”
Chief Ezennia said that he purchased the long sitting chairs in the market secretariat hall, to change the image of the hall, noting that he inherited nothing on the assumption of office.
“I personally brought the INEC registration officials and four machines to make registration easy for traders and the machines were placed at the Secretariat for easy access.
“Our Governor, Prof. Chukwuma Soludo, is a game changer, that is the reason I am doing all these in the market, to better the condition of the traders in the market.
”I am directed to restore the lost glory of the market by the governor through the Commissioner for Commerce and Industry, Mr Obinna Ngonadi.”
He explained that they have three zones in the market with their leaders, adding that the market has a well-organized structure and standard, which makes administration easy.
