Traders at the famed Bridgehead Drug Market in Onitsha, Anambra State, have petitioned the state governor, Prof. Chukwuma Soludo, to enable them to decide their leaders rather than the state government’s existing caretaker committee.
The traders, operating under the banner of ‘Concerned People of Ogbogu,’ threatened legal action in a statement made accessible to journalists in Onitsha on Wednesday if the state governor refused to allow them to hold their polls.
The statement was signed by the group’s National Coordinator, Emmanuel Ozoemenam, as well as Lines Secretaries and Chairmen Osita Sopuluchukwu and Ozioma Okeke.
They argued that the Federal Government is solely responsible for the supervision of drug markets in Nigeria, and that the Onitsha drug market is no exception.
According to the group, traders had corresponded with Soludo in May 2023, expressing their concerns regarding the market. However, the governor did not provide them with a response.
Consequently, they issued a caution that in the event that the state government declined to grant them the authority to independently select the market leadership within a reasonable period, they would be compelled to resort to legal action in order to remove the current interim leadership.
The statement added, “In 2020, during the regime of former governor Willie Obiano, the Bridge Head Drug Market obtained court judgement restraining the state government from appointing caretaker leadership in the market on the ground that the market should be controlled by the Federal Government through the Federal Ministry of Health.
“The traders, by this statement, are also calling on Governor Soludo to allow traders in the market to organise election and elect their own leaders; because, the market is under the Exclusive list, and Anambra State does not have the authority to appoint caretaker leadership in the market.
“Soludo is, by this statement reminded that when he came to power, he appointed caretaker leadership in the Bridge Head Drug Market, and promised that an election would be organised in the market within one year. One year has come and gone, but nothing happened.
“What we owe the state is the IGR accruing from the market, and we always remit the same to the state coffers.
“Therefore, if within a reasonable timeframe, the Anambra State government did not allow us to organise an election in our market, we will be left with no option than to drag the state to count.”
Attempts to elicit responses from the state government, namely the Special Assistant on Markets, Everistus Uba, proved unsuccessful, since the governor’s aide declined to answer the calls made to him.
