By PAMELA EBOH, Awka

Scores of women trooped out on Thursday at the Odu Igbo Ogbo Azu Market in Ogbaru, Ogbaru Local Government Area of Anambra State, to protest alleged sack from their shops.

The protesters led by an 82-year-old woman, Mrs Elizabeth Ezue, carried placards of different inscriptions such as, “We have stayed in our shops for 23 years without disturbance from any government and market leader”, “Ogbaru Main Market Chairman stop building on our shops on Sundays”, and “We were legally allocated our shops in 1996 by Ogbaru Local Government”.

Other aged women who turned up for the protests were Mrs Veronica Nwauba, 68, Josephine Dimaka, 80, and Enderline Onwuezue, 75 years.

The women while calling on Governor Willie Obiano to wade into the matter said they had occupied the shops for 23 years. They insisted that the Ogbaru Local Government Area had no powers to eject them.

The women displayed their allocation papers bearing Gable-end Pitches and Kiosk, signed by Uzondu Egwuatu, dated 13 May 1996.

In her speech, Ezue said: “We’re surprised why the new Chairman of Ogbaru Main Market will be the one to dispossess us of our shops.

“We have been trading in the shops for 23 years under successive governments and market leaders and have not had problem with anybody.

“We even invited the police from Onitsha Area Command who warned him to stay away from our shops.

“We are surprised that Nwawuzie came up again to start building on our shops even after the Police Area Commander had asked him to stay away from our shops.

“We do not have any other option than to mobilise our children to fight for us, but police from the Okpoko Police Station arrested them on the instruction of Nwawuzie. That’s why we are on the streets today.”

Ezue claimed that the Chairman of Ogbaru Main Market, Victor Nwawuzie, started building on their shops on December 25, 2019 but they got the information and cut short their December holiday to stop him and his contractors.

Efforts to get Nwawuzie’s reaction failed as he did not respond to calls put across to him, nor respond to the text message sent to him in respect of the matter.

The women took their protest to Okpoko Police Station where they demanded the release of their children who were allegedly arrested by the police for disrupting the construction on their open shops.

Update news