The leadership crisis rocking Onitsha Electronics Market in Anambra State has deepened and trustees have petitioned the state government to intervene.
The trustees of the market petitioned the state government through their lawyer, Ejike Ezenwa Chambers, requesting Gov. Willie Obiano’s urgent intervention to resolve the impasse.
The petition dated Oct. 10, 2020 and captioned “Threat to the lives of our clients and deliberate and well-orchestrated agenda to cause crisis in the Electronic Dealers Association Onitsha” was aimed at immediate solution of the crisis.
The trustees, Chuks Onyeizugbe, Charles Okoye, Obinna Igwemadu, Fredrick Okafor, Asaa Ikechukwu, Emeka Okafor and Lucky Mobi, are all stall owners in the market.
The lawyer averred that his clients have instructed him to write the petition, while alleging that the president of Electronic Dealers Association Onitsha, Izuchukwu Okoye, in connivance with some of his executives contrived and seek to alter illegally some articles in the Constitution of the Association.
He said the market leadership had also undertaken secretly to introduce unfounded articles into the Constitution of the Association without consent of the members of the Association.
They alleged that Okoye since assumption of office has refused and neglected to render any account to the Association.
“More so, that Electronics Market is in danger of being sold off by ‘AMCON’ because some characters used the market to take loan from a bank to the tune of three hundred million naira (N300,000,000) without resort to traders who own market stalls.
“That Okoye purportedly removed the general secretary of the Association, Mr Damian Ogudike unilaterally, and has also employed his hirelings to intimidate anybody from baring his mind at meeting of the Association.
“Members are threatened with impunity for airing their opinion and also Okoye has converted security patrol van of the market to personal use,” they said.
They have implored the governor to conduct a quiet investigation into the goings-on in the market, to cause a suspension of Okoye in order to enable him look into their complaints.
They requested the governor to mandate the trustees of the market or the vice chairman to handle and oversee the affairs of the market pending an election.
In his reaction, Okoye said whatever is written against him does not concern him.
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