Anambra: Traders beg Soludo for C of O payment waiver

By Cyprian Ebele, Onitsha

Traders at God’s Favour Building Material, Portharcourt road/ Uga Street Fegge Onitsha, have begged Governor Charles Chukwuma Soludo, to consider their financial plight by waivering payment of Certificate of Occupancy, (C of O), on their new site at Nteje.

The chairman of the Allied Building International Market Nteje, (new site), Ejike Ignatius, who made this known in a statement signed and issued to newsmen in Onitsha, equally begged the governor to construct the internal roads in the market.

The statement reads in part: “Since the development of the new site, we did everything on our own, from the scratch, buying of the land, all the land settlements, when we wanted to get the C of O, the money is too much that we decided to develop the new site first, so that we will not use the money meant for the developing of the site for C of O.

“We are pleading to the government to help us to get the C of O, Governor Obiano help us by waivering some amount of money, when we get our C of O approval, we will be happy, if Governor Soludo allows for C of O waiver, we will be happy and do everything accordingly “.

“We also plead to the government to help us by making sure that no trader is left behind, to make sure that everybody moves to the new site, both those at Atani road dumps, among others. Even the vehicles with building materials should not be allowed to remain here,

“Any of them seen should be moved to Awka for prosecution. If not some will like to stay here thereby frustrating the vision of our new site not to be actualized, suffering the market leaders and the government,” he stated.

The chairman noted further that since the government would be coming to the new site for the collection of their levies, “We plead also for some palliative works or construction on our new site roads since our goods and vehicles are of heavy duty.

“We have dug boreholes, with overhead tanks, we are now trying to mount solar light before moving in, if the government can provide transformer for easy connection of light, then we would mount the electric poles, though we have not ask of these before”, he pleaded.

He recalled that he became the chairman of God’s Favour Building Material and Allied Building International market which comprises of building materials traders at Uga Street, Portharcourt road, Atani road Ogbaru, some part of Bridge head in 2013.

“But when my tenure elapsed, they tried to conduct an election but along the line, they reversed and told me to continue the chairmanship till the completion of the new site, for proper rendering of account without confusion, since I am one of the persons that started from the purchasing of the land, so that there will not be mixed up somewhere along the line.

“Our market here is small and easy to control, we pay all the government levies, traders’ taxes but due to our being in private stores and individual buildings, we don’t pay stallage fees rather we pay business premises to the government,” he further explained.

He disclosed that all the traders of the market contributed their money in the development of their new site and as such everybody will be eager to move into the new site but however warned that any body who refuses to join others will be dealt with by the state government.

“It is the government that told us to look for a site relocation, then since we have found one, we are mandated to leave, though the months given to us have expired and another two months are given to us which are due for expiration,” he stated.

He said that the new site remains the greatest market, “The permanent site will accommodate all of us, it is our choice and was approved by the former Governor, Willie Obiano, it was Governor Peter Obi that offered us a letter to look for a permanent site for relocation.

“So we started during Governor Peter Obi, passed through Governor Obiano, so we are looking forward that it will be commissioned by Governor Soludo.

“It has been inspected by the Deputy Governor, Special Adviser to the Governor on Trade and Markets, and the Special Adviser to the Governor on security and they all witnessed that it is the biggest market not only in Anambra but in Nigeria.

“Our challenges here is because we are along the road, all these parked lorries along the road pay to the government, depending on the capacity of the motor, enrolment fee, IGR, downstream and upstream, atimes road traffic agencies, ARTMA, OCHA Brigade, Local Government Area appear because of the blockage of the roads.

“We face them everyday but the joy of it is that we have developed our new site, very soon, we will move in and stop blocking roads and for some time now we have not seen any tout, the state government tried very well in fighting against touting through SASA.

“I must commend Mr Governor for all the things he is doing in the state, construction of roads, building of health centres, employment of doctors and nurses, digging of boreholes, employment of teachers, free education, signing of Memorandum of Understanding with EEDC for steady power supply, and other countless achievements.

“We are looking forward for reelection of Governor Soludo come 2025 because he has a lot of good things for the development of the state, I earlier gave him my support before he emerged as the Governor and i am supporting for his reelection through our Soludo Sopport Group” he added.