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Some traders in Anambra State on Wednesday threatened a showdown with the Department of State Services (DSS) and the state government over the arrest of two market chairmen in the state.
The group alleged that the two men were arrested by the personnel of the DSS during a meeting with all market chairmen in the state and the State Government Internal Revenue Service, held at Training Hall, Revenue House, Awka, on Tuesday.
According to them, the meeting was at the instance of the chairman of the revenue body, Mr Richard Madiebo, who summoned them to discuss some issues bothering on payment of levies and other sundry payments.
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The group, led by their chairman, Chief Gabriel Okeke, decried the high levies paid by the traders, lamenting that they were initially paying N5,000 but now the state government increased it to between N30,000 to N40,000.
He said as the meeting was going, officials of DSS stormed the venue and immediately arrested and whisked away two market chairmen of Ogidi Building Materials market, and Oguta road Aluminum Dealers Association.
They said the two men were arrested for allegedly opposing the N30,000 to N40,000 levy imposed on the traders instead of N5,000, normal levy payment, which they have been paying.
Consequently, the meeting ended in fiasco as the entire traders, in solidarity to their arrested members, left in anger to the headquarters of the DSS in Awka, where their two arrested members were taken to.
While speaking to journalists in Awka on Wednesday, the group, under the umbrella of Concerned Traders of Anambra, led by the chairman, Chief Gabriel Okeke, vowed to protest the arrest of their colleagues threatening to boycott any meeting organised by the state government to avoid arrest.
Okeke said, ‘We will protest the arrest and exorbitant levy imposed on us by the State Government. We formerly paid N5,000 for loading and off loading of wares but now the State Government imposed N30,000 to N40,000, as the case may be. From where do we source the levy imposed on us to pay at this hardship.
‘Two market chairmen, from Building Materials market Ogidi, and that of Oguta Road Aluminum Dealers Association, were arrested by the DSS in the meeting we were having at the training hall of the Revenue House, in Awka, on the orders of the chairman of the revenue body, Mr Richard Madiebo, for earlier opposing the high levy.
‘It is because of this high levy being imposed on traders that different sections of the traders in the State, that include, tomatoes sellers, fish sellers, among others, are leaving for neighbouring States like Delta, Imo, Enugu and Abia. You don’t employ those who are not traders to come and pilot the affairs of the traders. Sacked touts were recalled to come and manage our affairs, we can’t take it.
‘The protest is just to let Governor Chukwuma Soludo, know that we can’t bear this any longer, Anambra is not the only State where you have traders. Every time leaders are changed and caretaker committees instituted. Government has no business in market leadership, it is just to collect its levy and leave leadership for the traders.’
The State government is yet to react to the claims.
