The Governor Chukwuma Soludo-led administration in Anambra State has marked out over 1000 shops for demolition at the Ochanja Market, Onitsha.
Most of the marked buildings are structurally defective, including cracked walls and decking, felling pillars and sands, roads obstructions, among other challenges.
Officials of the state government led a joint task force and professionals to monitor the various sections of the market on Friday and described some of the buildings they saw as illegal construction with no approval from the government.
The governor, represented by the commissioner for commerce and industry, Obinna Ngonadi, added that the administration has the intention to decongest markets and raise them to international standards. He warned owners of illegal structures to remove them or get ready to pay the government to that effect.
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Chairman, Anambra State Physical Planning Board, Chike Maduekwe, assured that the Anambra State Materials Testing Laboratory would visit all the markets to test the structural integrity of their buildings so as to find out those to be spared with some amendment and those to be completely demolished.
Speaking during the exercise, the caretaker committee chairman, Ochanja Market, Bonaventure Muo, hailed the governor for the move and promised to support the government to sanitise the markets.
The team later visited the building materials market at Ogidi and Ogbunike to access their level of compliance to the traders and markets’ enumeration exercise.
Addressing the traders, Ngonadi said the data capturing exercise would have to gather comprehensive data of all traders and their enterprises with a view to taking proper care of their welfare, security and other purposes.
Speaking in separate interviews, the chairman of the building materials market (Ogidi), Jude Okonkwo and Adinu Onyechi of building materials 2 and 3 (Ogidi and Ogbunike) commended the governor and promised to mobilise their members to participate in the enumeration exercise.
