Market chairmen urge Gov. Soludo to ignore call for sack of Anuna, Uba by traders

By Cyprian Ebele, Onitsha

The New Market Road/Sokoto and Haruna market chairmen, Emeka Mbachu, and Emmanuel Idoko on Friday have urged governor Chukwuma Soludo to ignore the call by some traders to sack the Special Adviser on Trade and Markets, Evarist Uba, and the President General of Anambra State Markets Amalgamated Traders’ Association, ASMATA.

Mbachu and Idoko who made this known in a statement signed and issued to newsmen in Onitsha.

According to Mbachu, “As regards what I read on the internet concerning Humphrey Anuna and Evarist Uba, that the Governor will sack them. I am totally against anybody in the ASMATA or market saying such a thing.

“These are a group of people that embezzled government money and remitted only #400 million but Anuna and Uba increased it to #4.5billion, a large gap. what they want is to be reinstated to continue from where they stopped in diverting government revenue to their private pocket.

“The ASMATA PG, and SPAD will continue to remain in their seats until Soludo is done with his two tenures because he gave the traders a better welfare than the successive administrations.

“During the administration of former ASMATA, Okwudili Nwankwo (Ewepudike), this kind of thing did not happen. The PG always tells us to do the right thing and then forget blackmail like this publication that is aimed at accusing them for nothing than that the present market leadership sacked those diverting government revenue.

“Soludo works with selfless people who are interested in moving the State forward like PG and SPAD and no amount of black mail and calls for their removal will deter them from doing the work they are sent by Soludo to do,” Mbachu posited.

Reacting, the Haruna market chairman, Emmanuel Idoko, stated that, “I give vote of confidence on PG and SPAD,. I hope Madubuko, the former Commissioner for Trade and Market is in that position, everybody will get it hot because he is a no nonsense man.

People will continue to criticize you once you are in office, you must have an enemy.

“Another thing I am saying is that any market leader that will be a barrier to this partnership with governor let the person be removed even if it is myself because we will not toy with this second tenure bid of Soludo, we have to deliver him for second tenure to complete what he has embarked upon,” he added further.

” ASMATA did a wonderful campaign for Soludo, even there were some places he went to campaign that they threw sachet water at him, such as Head Bridge, I was there, now that he is in power, I mean ASMATA, people are talking rubbish.

“Since PG and SPAD were appointed peace has been restored in all markets and we have meetings weekly on how to move the markets forward., All PG is interested in is to restore peace, get government revenue and remit to government treasury, collect his three percent but most people are finding it difficult to pay the three commission” he hinted.