Market leaders and residents have vowed to resist uzodinma’s Commissioner Rex Anonobi against entering markets built with community effort
Concerned indegenes and stateholders of Mbaitoli LGA of Imo state have continued to frown over what they considered as sheer usurpation of the powers of the Mbaitoli Local Government Council, following reported outreach to Ogbaku Market and Egbeada Modern Market in Mbaitoli Local Government Area of the state by the Commissioner for Trade, Commerce And Investment,Barr.Rex Anunobi (SOKOM), said to have aimed at educating stakeholders on conducting government businesses with transparency and adherence to due process.
According to reports,the concerned people of Mbaitoli LGA have expressed dissatisfaction with the tour of the said markets in the LGA by the State Commissioner for Trade, Commerce And Investment on Thursday, November, 14,2024, when he told the stakeholders that shop allocation is the exclusive responsibility of Government through his Ministry, without recourse to the constitutional provisions that empower the Local Government Council authorities to excercise control of the market for enhanced IGR-drive, even as he warned people to avoid the temptation of dealing with anybody or group whatsoever outside the Ministry of Trade, Commerce And Investment on shop allocation.
Also worrisome a statement by the Commissioner which sparked off further controversies and agitations by the Mbaitoli stakeholders as to front for direct control upon allocation of shops by the Mbaitoli Council authorities,was when the Commissioner emphatically warned with a ceveat that no development partner should attempt such illegally under his watch, adding that his interaction with the traders at the Mbaitoli markets shall foster collaboration between them, development partners and government.
However,in a swift reaction to this unhealthy development,a group under the aegis of Property Owners’ Association in Mbaitoli LGA,in a statement made available to journalists in Owerri, signed by Chief Chibuike Amama (Chairman),Ibe Esther C.(Secretary),and Onyekwere Colins (PRO),have earlier appealed for urgent intervention by the Executive Chairman of Mbaitoli LGA,Hon.Ifunananya Nwanegwo,in order to restore the responsibilities and constitutional duties of the Mbaitoli Council authorities being hijacked by the Imo State Government through the Ministry/Commissioners or Appointees like the said Barr.Anunobi.
According to the group,the action by Barr.Anunobi and his proxies infringes on the Mbaitoli LGA’s constitutional provisions of S.7(4th schedule), which implies that Anunobi and the Imo State Government have no powers on market issues in any Mbaitoli Market.
The group therefore,in the statement,warned Barr.Anunobi to respect himself and his office by knowing his boundaries and duties in the state,as well as desist forthwith from causing confusion in Mbaitoli markets by misleading and deceiving traders, especially those at the Imo State International Modern Market, Egbeada-Ubomiri,as failure to do so will not only attract legal actions against him and his office,but serious embarrassments to the Government of Imo state led by the Governor,Sen.Hope Uzodimma.
The group also called on all the traders in Mbaitoli markets and the general public to disregard the said statement by the Commissioner,Barr.Anunobi as same is not only unlawful, misleading, deceitful, but one made out of ignorance of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (as amended).
