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By Henry Umahi
It was a midnight operation. While residents slept on August 26, 2017, bulldozers already stationed at the scene rolled menacingly into Owerri Main Market, otherwise known as Eke-Ukwu Market, and started pulling down stalls and destroying goods.
Investments estimated at N16 billion were either destroyed or looted by criminals and operatives deployed to oversee the exercise.
As traders came out to protest their forceful eviction and the destruction and looting of their wares, a trigger-happy operative shot 11-year-old Master Somtochukwu Ibeanusi, from Anambra State, in the head. And the boy, who was assisting his father to pack their goods, died. Two others were reportedly shot dead and several others sustained injuries.
Worse still, it was alleged that the forceful eviction was carried out against an order of the Imo State High Court restraining the state government from demolishing the market and evicting the traders.
There was outrage across the country, with some calling on the Federal Government to probe the incident. Eke-Ukwu is an ancestral market held so dearly by the original landowners and other people of the state. So, for the people, the destruction was a sacrilege.
An Owerri indigene and renowned neuroscientist, Prof. Philip Njemanze, described the destruction of the market as “a dastardly satanic act accomplished with human hands.”
The irrepressible pro-life advocate petitioned the International Criminal Court and their response terminated the matter.
Four years after, the story is changing. An edifice is springing up on the spot where justice was murdered. During a recent visit, the report saw that the market was being reconstructed by the Governor Hope Uzodimma administration.
To start with, Douglas Road, where the market is located, has been reconstructed. Hitherto, it was forsaken and wretched. But traders have taken over a large part of the road, making driving difficult there.
The Commissioner for Information in the state, Chief Declan Emelumba, explained: “The traders on Douglas Road were those displaced from the Eke-Ukwu Market and they don’t have stalls. And it would be inhuman to tell them to go and do nothing. So, we are tolerating them while making sure that this market comes on board. This was the market where an 11-year-old boy, Somtochukwu, was murdered in cold blood. The painful thing is that the demolition of the market was even against a court order that the market should not be demolished. The people went ahead to demolish it and did nothing thereafter. So, you ask, what was the hurry to demolish the market about? In fact, people were suspecting that they wanted to convert it a personal estate.
“Governor Uzodimma has come to wipe away the tears of the people. This is an ancestral market of Owerri people. That is why they felt strongly about the demolition.
“Douglas Road was abandoned; it was bad. And it became a den for criminals. The day Uzodimma inaugurated it, some indigenes, including prominent ones, wept like babies. It was tears of joy; they were overwhelmed by what the governor did. It was such an emotional thing and the people were so grateful.
“The road was abandoned and the market was demolished. This is like the Balogun (Isale Eko) Market of Owerri. It is the heartbeat of the place. For them, it was like somebody really wanted to demean Owerri people and render them completely useless economically by demolishing their market and allowing the road that houses a lot of major businesses to go so bad that nobody could pass it except robbers, who were using it as their den.
“So, when Uzodimma took it upon himself to rehabilitate and commission Douglas Road, the joy of the people knew no bounds. It was one of the first projects he did. Today, he is bringing the market back and it is not going to be one of those run-of-the-mill markets. It will have over 1,000 stalls with modern facilities such as ICT centre, police station, cold rooms, warehouses, CCTV, modern car parks, banks, conveniences ATM gallery, fire station, etc. It will be a model of markets in Nigeria.”
Senior Special Adviser to the Governor on Public Enlightenment, Mr. Stanford Nwokedi, said the exercise was in line with the reconstruction, rehabilitation and recovery philosophy of the Uzodimma administration. Nwokedi said the project would be concluded without delay, as the governor was determined to make the people happy again.
