Anguish enveloped traders of Mbiabong Market, Uyo Local Government Area of Akwa Ibom State following the demolition of their market stalls seen by some staffers of Uyo Capital City Development Commission (UCCDC) as “illegal structures.”
StraightNews gathered that some staffers of UCCDA had visited the market Thursday, and warned the traders to relocate to another area due to the proximity of the market to Uyo-Oron Federal Road.
It was learnt that they had told the traders that they would return and demolish the structures daubed as “illegal” to reduce, according to them, traffic gridlock usually caused by the activities in the market located along the road.
A source close to the market indicated that Saturday morning, UCCDA rolled in their caterpillar and other vehicles and pulled those structures.
When StraightNews visited Mbiabong Market S, some market women were seen crying near the scenes of the demolished structures, wares and tables.
Angry youths and market women, who expressed their displeasure over the UCCDA’s action, burnt old motor tyres to block vehicles from passing through the Federal road adjoining streets of the affected markets.
Later, the crowd resorted to carrying placards with inscriptions like “For how long shall we suffer”; “Government, please hear our cries”; “Government should relocate us to another market”, among others.
The youth president of Mbiabong village, Mr. Aniefiok Ime Etim, who spoke to StraightNews, opined that the state government should have provided them with another market to give enough time to relocate to beat the demolition exercise.
Etim said “When we came out, we saw a tractor and other vehicles. The tractor entered with force and almost killed these women. That is when I intervened and asked what was going on, but none of them dared to explain to me. It was later that I learnt that they were officials of the UCCDA.”
“What I saw was this monumental destruction. Their tractor went in, carried these women’s wares and their tables and threw them away. They destroyed all these shops too. My position is that government cannot remove an existing market without a resettlement arrangement,” he noted.
Etim, who described the governor Udom Emmanuel administration as a sensible government that cares about the well-being of the people, called on the state government to relocate the market to a comfortable place for the women to keep selling so that they could feed their families.
One of the traders, Mrs. Rose Archibong, who said that the information got to them just a day before the demolition exercise, said that they would not vote for the PDP during elections if they were not compensated and given a new market place.
She, however, noted that the leadership of the village had offered about one and a half hectares for a new market, but said that the market women were clearing the new site ready to relocate when the authorities came and leveled their structures.
“These are women that voted for Governor Udom Emmanuel in 2015. How could they do this to us? We are only in this market to earn a living so that we will not do what we are not supposed to do. When we were asked to vacate this place, we went to the commissioner for environment to complain and he said we should continue to use this place until a new place is given to us.
Our reporter made several telephone calls to the Chairman of Uyo Capital City Development Authority, Prince Enobong Uwah, but he did not pick the calls.