Governor Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi has reportedly ordered the closure of a market in Enugu State after traders booed him.

The governor was said to have shut the Akwatta market, where tomatoes, oil, yam among other food items were sold, leaving policemen to mount guard at the entrances

Ugwuanyi was said to have visited the major market in the state, ‘Ogbete Main Market’, to observe the level of compliance to the directives that all the markets in the state with the exemption of food markets be close down due to the coronavirus pandemic. But when he got to the market, those selling wears were said to have taken over the food section of the market and they were allegedly ordered by the governor to vacate the market as they were not exempted to trade.

The governor’s directive was said to have enraged the traders, whose livelihood depended on hawking for daily living. They rejected the directive, booed the governor  and called him names.

Residents on Sunday, however, described the total close down on account of the incident as inhumane and showed the governor’s intolerance to dissenting voices.

For Ejike Okoye,

“I think the governor should have been more tolerant with the traders. Now every resident of Enugu State are suffering the closure.”

He added that there could have been better ways to handle the situation.

Mrs. Nweke Ifeoma said that the hawkers shouldn’t have reacted differently in the face of hunger and deprivation, noting that the state government have not provided any palliative for such low-class individuals since the lockdown began in the state.

“So you won’t expect them to sit-at-home to be killed by hunger.”

Some even alleged that the governor had sold the market to a transport firm in the state, accusing him of being avaricious to land acquisition.

But the state government has denied all the accusations.

The Chairman of Enugu North Local Government Area of Enugu State, Emeka Onunze, in a statement he personally signed said the allegations were “false, misleading, baseless, mischievous and a failed calculated attempt to undermine our genuine efforts to upgrade the environmental condition of the market for the health and wellbeing of our people”.

Onunze, who disclosed that his “office is constitutionally saddled with the responsibility of overseeing the affairs of the market”, maintained that the Council has no intention of selling the market.

He said,

“We have temporarily relocated the traders of the Tomato market in Akwatta to Garki Market, Enugu, to enable the Council rebuild the section of the Ogbete Main Market to standard before they return to the market to continue their business transactions”.

“The administrative process for the reconstruction of the Akwatta Market is ongoing and we wish to reiterate that the project is dear to us and receiving urgent attention.

“The government did not sell Akwatta Market to anybody or company as is mischievously being peddled.

He added,

“Our Council, in view of the reality of the Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19) pandemic and in furtherance of its commitment to enthrone basic standard hygiene in the market and its environs, on March 24, 2020, shut down the Tomato section of Akwatta in Ogbete Main Market, Enugu, before the general closure of the entire market”.

Meanwhile, when our Correspondent visited the market on Sunday, five police patrol vehicles were stationed at the entrances and adjoining roads to the market.