Monday sit-at-home: Onitsha Main Market extends closing hours

In its bid to cover the paralysed business activities of Mondays, over sit-at-home exercise, the leadership of Onitsha Main Market, Anambra has extended closing hours from 5pm to 6pm daily.

Innocent Ezeoha Ezennia, Caretaker Committee Chairman of the market made the disclosure recently.

He said that the step became necessary in view of the need for the traders to have more time to do their businesses and relax.

“The traders are always in a hurry to close by 5pm as scheduled, but now it is 6pm, to enable them and those who come to the market to have enough time to transact their business,” he said.

On the cleanliness of the market as directed by the state government, Ezennia said that, “We have two standard trucks for evacuation of refuse in the market and personnel who we pay and they clean the market both in the morning and evening.

“We cleared the roads/streets in the market such that three vehicles can pass in a space of three lanes without obstruction. The previous administrations were not able to decongest Johnson Street. I was the one that decongested it and sacked the touts in the market.

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“These touts, some of them are graduates and what we did was to convert most of them to be apprentice traders, so that after learning the trade, they will start their own.

“Talking of achievements, I purchased the long sitting chairs in the market secretariat hall, to change the image of the hall as I inherited nothing on assumption of office.”

He further said: “I personally brought the INEC registration officials and four machines to make registration easy for traders and the machines were placed at the Secretariat for easy access.

“Our governor, Prof. Chukwuma Soludo’s, is a game changer, and that is what I am doing in the market. To better the condition of the traders in the market.

“I am directed to restore the lost glory of the market by the governor through the Commissioner for Commerce and Industry, Hon. Obinna Ngonadi.

“We have three zones in the market with their leaders The market has its well organised structure and standard, that makes administration easy.”