From Ifeoma Ejiofor
Demonstrators in the early hours of Tuesday swooped on the major streets of the commercial town of Onitsha to protest closure of the main market by Governor Charles Soludo.
The protesters carried anti-Soludo banners with inscriptions like “We closer to revolution, thank God Soludo started it”, “The revolution must march to Government House, Awka”, “It must be overwhelming” amongst others.
They expressed their displeasure over what they called unnecessary closure of the market.
Governor Soludo, had on Monday ordered the closure of the ever bubbling market for failure of the traders to open for business.
He had also threatened to extend the closure of the market to a month should the traders fail to carry out business activities next Monday.
The face-off however, deteriorated as the protesters attempted to move to the main market as they were repelled by the combine security forces mounting guard at the market.
A protester, Okonkwo Ifeanyi while speaking with our reporter expressed surprise that Gov Soludo will just wake up and shut their market down as if he was the one who open business for them.
Reacting to the development, the Police spokesman for Anambra State, Ikechukwu Ikenga (SP) said that the security agencies were in Onitsha main market to ensure maintenance of law and order.
He informed members of the public that the Onitsha Main Market has been re-closed in compliance with the directive of the Anambra State Government, as approved by Gov Soludo.
“In furtherance of this directive, adequate security has been deployed in and around the market, as well as other strategic locations within Onitsha, by the Police in collaboration with other security agencies, to maintain law and order and prevent any breach of public peace”, he said.
