Ohanaeze Ndigbo begs Wike to reopen spare parts market

Tuesday, May 26, 2020 4:46 pm

Governor Nyesom Wike

.. Traders promise to obey NCDC Covid-19 protocols when Market is reopened.

“…We are tenants and breadwinners without daily sales we are in trouble”

Okafor Ofiebor/Port-Harcourt

Traders at the largest auto-spare parts market in Rivers State popularly known as Ikokwu in Port Harcourt which has been closed for about a month on the orders of Governor Nyesom Wike, are making passionate appeal for it to be reopened.

They made the appeal to Governor Wike through the Rivers State chapter of Ohanaeze Ndigbo Worldwide. .

Secretary of the group, Uche Okwukwu, who spoke to some journalists in Port Harcourt said traders at the Ikokwu spare part market are going through tough times due to the closure of the spare part market.

The spare parts market is predominantly run by people of the Igbo ethnic extraction.

“I will appeal to him to open the Ikokwu market given the facts that the market have shut down more than one month.

”The traders there are tenants in their various home, they have rent to pay as tenant and must earn living to feed their family. Please temper justice with mercy, he added.”

He, however, commended Governor Wike on his effort to curb the spread of COVID-19 in the state.

“The Ohanaeze Ndigbo Worldwide appreciate the challenges of the governor and government in their effort to curb the menace, imposed on humanity, particularly in Rivers State by the COVID 19 disease.’

Okwukwu further said the traders are ready to work inline with the stipulated guidelines if the market is reopened in obedience of Covid-19 protocols.

”I’ m in touch with some of the leaders, I told them that they must appreciate the difficulties situation the government found itself before the shut down the market, quite a rowdy one, but if they reopened they must takes step to ensure that they are not locked down again”.

Recall that Governor Wike closed the Market when he declared a lockdown in the Diobu axis of Port Harcourt where the market is located because of the refusal of the business outfits in areas to observe social distancing and Covid-19 protocols.

The Governor had threatened to shutdown the market throughout the tenure of his administration and acquire the area for other developmental purposes for the state if traders remain recalcitrant in the obedience of his executive order on Covid-19..