Traders of electronics and electrical dealers of the old Kenyatta Market Enugu last week lost billions of Naira, as the state government moved in bulldozers into the market and demolished it even before some traders could resume for the day’s activity.
Many shops fully stocked with wares were destroyed.
Enugu State government, however, said the traders were given enough time to relocate and that it used all legitimate processes to demolish the building materials market, along Kenyatta Street, in Uwani, Enugu
The government also said the demolition followed a court order by the Enugu State Magistrate’s Court as well as several radio announcements by the Enugu State Capital Territory Development Authority (ECTDA), notifying the traders of its readiness to implement the order.
The Court Order which the government said authorised the demolition was issued On July 8, 2022 by B.C. Ekwo, giving the state government the authority “to seal off and close all business activities of occupants of the electronics and electrical dealers of the old Kenyatta Market.” It stated that some of the structures had been illegally erected.
Government said the radio announcement called on the traders to vacate on or before August 4, 2022 to the new Kenyetta International Market, where they had been allotted shops in the past three years.
The Chairman of ECTDA, Josef Onoh blamed the market leaders for their inability to convince the traders to vacate the street market and move over to the better-planned permanent site of the market.
Onoh said the exercise was due to the congestion within the city. He also noted that the area where the traders converted into a market was originally a place given to the National Youth Council of Nigeria (NYCN) for youth capacity development and recreation, but which the council turned into a building material market in the heart of the city centre.”
According to him, “As way back as 2003, a site was obtained and designated as Enugu South International Market and the successive state administrations failed to relocate the traders to that site in Ugwuaji. It is not only hurting the economy of the state, but also affects the development and growth of the city.
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“So, we now have an overpopulated arena, which has contravened every single aspect of the town planning development; and we have given them so much time to relocate to the site. On January 6, 2000, we came for an enforcement and we moved a portion of the traders but some said they didn’t have shops.”
Chairman of Kenyetta Market Traders’ Association, Chinweuba Igwesi said there have been several relocation notices for the building material dealers, which some traders failed to comply with, expressing sadness that relocation lingered.
“We advised them, some heeded to it but others did not. Spaces for shops were given at discounted rates then but many of them did not take it seriously. A good number of sensitisation was done as leaders of the market, which made some buy theirs at Ugwuaji but others refused. Some of them said the relocation would not work. Some moved to that place but after some time, without government enforcement, they came back.
“These notices have been served for over three years. I thank the governor but some traders deceived their colleagues into believing that there would be no enforcement. Those who have already relocated to Ugwuaji are giving testimonies of the economic viabilities of the place and cannot wish to come back here,” Igwesi said.
Some of the traders who spoke to BusinessDay said that the prices of the shops in the new site were very high that some of them could not afford easily.
The empty land they said also “goes for millions of naira not to talk of erecting the structure. The government should have considered reducing the price of the empty land for new business operators to afford.”
The challenge to be faced by traders in the new Kenyatta Market which is located along Enugu Port Harcourt highway, if the government of Enugu fails to quickly construct a pedestal bridge would be daily killing of people through accidents on that particular spot.
The demolition was received with mixed reactions as some people were commending the government’s political will to move the market to the site after several years it had been causing obstructions on the street.
Others blame the government for not making the shops and empty lands available to the traders at affordable cost and that the government should have closed the market down as was directed by without demolishing and destroying the wares considering the recent economic situation of the country.
