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Eziomume Solomon, Nnewi
Traders in Onitsha under the platform of Onitsha Grain Seed Dealers Association, yesterday, embarked on a clean-up exercise and celebrated the victory of the market association over a faction that laid claim to the ownership of the market for years. The traders have their market sited along Onitsha/Asaba Expressway, beside Army barracks, Onitsha.
Daily Sun gathered that a group of traders in the market known as Eleven Man Committee in 2012 conspired and laid claim to the ownership of the market, while turning other traders in the market into tenants who were made to pay rents.
But in a strong resistance, the leadership of the market, under Godwin Okonkwo, as chairman, sought redress in the court, a litigation that lasted about eight years before a verdict was finally given recently in favour of the market association by a Federal High Court sitting in Awka. In an interview with Daily Sun during the sanitation exercise,Okonkwo said: “ We shut down businesses to enable everyone participate actively in the exercise. A group known as Eleven Man Committee, which was an arm of our association, had claimed ownership of the market after its construction in 2012, when one Ichie Marcel Okpala was chairman of the market.
