Rochas Storm Douglas Road In Operation Wipe Out Ilegal Street Trading, As Relief Market Land Owners Spoil For War

OKOROCHA

Imo State Governor, Owelle Rochas Okorocha. Friday stormed the ever busy Douglas Road, Owerri, directing street traders to vacate the vicinity.

An eye witness said the Governor led a  team of some of his aides and men of some security agencies,, telling them to relocate to the newly constructed Stalls at Relief Market, Owerri.

Hundreds of illegal street traders took their heels as the exercise went on, thus causing commotion on the busy road. Many of the traders lamented that they were not given enough notice before the operation.


The action of the State Government is coming on the heels of its determination to sanitize Owerri city and decongest it.

A source in Government House, Owerri confirmed to this blog that the exercise was not designed to witch-hunt anyone but to make a Owerri city decent  and for the people to savour the gains of the infrastructural renewal put in place by Governor Rochas Okorocha.

The source maintained that the Governor is pained that all his efforts to clean up Owerri city has not been reciprocated by the people who have consistently resorted to illegal street trading and other acts that make Owerri look like a dirty and filthy city.

" The Governor is concerned. Look at the level of infrastructure we put in place, yet the place is so indecent and almost lawless. you cannot see the beauty of these infrastructure Rochas put in place because of the indecent nature of the city. Look at Douglas Road, people even sell their wares on the road. Bus Drivers even load passengers in the road. This is unacceptable" the source said     

However, land owners of the stalls at Relief market are spitting fire and brimstone lamenting that the State Government is yet to compensate them for using their land to build the stalls.

Leaders of Umuodu- Umuihugba community in Owerri municipality say that there is an existing agreement between the State Government and the community which stipulates that 30% of the stalls will be allocated to the community after its construction.

This blog was told that more than a year the State Government team led by the Chief of Staff, Sir Jude Ejiogu, Commissioner for lands, Housing and Urban Development, Uche Nwosu, then Commissioner for Commerce, Ichie Uche Best Mbanaso visited the community and assured them  that all terms of the agreement will be honoured, nothing has been done.

“What we see is the more you look, the less you see.  We had an agreement. They do not want to stick to it. They have even refused to sign the agreement. Is this not  deceit? we left them to construct the stalls because we believed that their word is their bond.  Now, they are telling street traders to come and take it. This will not happen. We will resist it” said a leader in the community who spoke to this blog on condition of anonymity.