Women traders in Abakpa market Wednesday protested round Abakaliki, the capital city of Ebonyi state saying shops allocated to them should be given back to them.
The women were seen crying to the state government house complaining that government officials were driving them out from the market to the new Margret International market where the state Governor, Engineer David Umahi asked them to relocate to.
The women who said they have no problem with the relocation said that the shops that was allocated to them has been taken away from them by some officials close of the government.
They called on the state government to come to their aide as they alleged that officials have gone contrary to the promise made to them by governor Umahi.
Speaking during the protest, the leader of the group which refused to give her name to the media expressed bitterness over what the women are passing through from government officials.
She said, “If the market is not for us the Abakpa traders let the people it is meant for go there. But because after everything we will be involved, we like the market; we want to relocate to the new international market, we like the works of our Governor, we benefit in many ways from his works.
However, today one government official will come to us and say that governor said this, tomorrow another one will say another thing. We no longer want that because what they are saying is entirely different from what the governor told us.
“At the beginning of all this the governor called us for a meeting and told us that we were going to relocate that the location of Abakpa market was not good, he said we were going to park into the market and do our business for 1-year without paying anything and after he will set up a committee to come and dialogue with us to know how the payment will be.
“Now the shops that were allocated to us as we attempted to move in their, we found out that other people have taken over it and padlocked it. A particular woman who is working hand in hand with government brought traders from the village and handed the shops to them thereby displacing us who were asked to relocate”.
The Special Adviser to Governor Umahi on Internal Security and Utility Urban and member of the market allocation committee Mr Nchekwube Aniako asked the woman leader of the group to compile names of the women and bring it along with some of its executives to the committee on Thursday morning for further actions.
