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From Ben Dunno, Warri
Traders in the popular Effurun market in Uvwie Local Government Area of Delta State, have commended the synergy between the Council authority and Market Committee in the renewed efforts to develop the market in order to bring about desired expansion and sustainable growth to the area.
The market men and women who spoke with newsmen at the marketplace expressed gratitude to Uvwie Council boss, Hon Ranson Onoyake and the Market Committee Chairman, Mike Agaren, for their vision in making the market not only affordable but also a modern trading centre.
The Committee Vice-Chairman, Edward Ukuwuere, described the Initiative as a very laudable one, stating that the traders had for a long time craved for such expansion that would accommodate more traders and create an avenue for daily earnings for additional people and by so doing reduce the high rate of unemployment in the area.
According to him, “this development initiative is what we, the traders had prayed to God to make possible for a very long time because most of the people you are seeing here today do not have a roof over their heads and we feel that with this kind of Initiative, many of them can afford to rent and own their own stores in the market.
“Nobody is being pushed or forced out of the market and we are all happy over the expansion that the Council has embarked upon within the market because we are very optimistic that this would address some of the major challenges that bother on securing stores which many traders are contending with the market.
Another speaker, Mrs Patricia Egere, the market speaker, appreciated the Council for deeming it necessary to embark on this kind of project in the market, stressing that what the market women needed at this time was developed so that many of them can now boast of having a roof over their heads while they do their business at the market.
“We the women on this market have longed requested for this kind of project and now that the Council Chairman, Hon Onoyake, has decided to do this, we sincerely want to appreciate him and appeal to him to see the project to an end early enough so that more of our women can have their own space in the market.
“All we want is to see development in the market and we are all happy today about the one currently ongoing in the market and we hope that more of this would be coming more often”, she stated.
One of the prominent market woman leaders, Mrs Marbel Akhigbe, expressed delight over the market expansion project and appealed to the Council Chairman to go a step further by giving them Solar Energy Power supply in the marketplace as most of them sell and stay in the market late due to the nature of their business.
“We are indeed very grateful over this ongoing project and we still want to appeal to the Council to go a step further by giving us Solar Energy Power Supply in the area because most of us stay in the market very late on a daily basis while doing our business”, she pleaded.
In his own reaction the Chairman of the Effurun Market Committee, Mike Agaren, explained that the essence of the market expansion project is to open up the market a little bit more for people to affordable stores to rent and make the marketplace more convenient for trading.
According to him, “all these stories about trying to deny people, especially the non-indigenes their right to trade in Effurun market are all false and untenable. What we are doing is to expand the market by turning the structure they are presently occupying from a bungalow to upstairs so we can bring in more traders and conserve the space.”
On the issue of the forceful ejection, Agaren stated: “We gave them enough time. It would interest you to know that the motive to vacate so that the construction work can commence was served since 2018 and we have constantly reminded them of this expansion plan”.
“We are not in any way biased on ethnic issues as most stores here today are owned and controlled by non-indigenes and we have told them that most of them that were affected in the place were reconstructing would get back their stores on completion of this ongoing project,” he concluded.
