The recent pronouncement by the Imo State Commissioner for Commerce and Industry, Ichie Best Mbanaso to relocate the ancient Eke Ukwu Owere market has attracted fierce reactions from some elders and stakeholders of Owere Nchi Ise who have vowed to resist the relocation of the market to anywhere.
Some leaders of the five villages that make up Owere Nchi Ise condemned the intended action, lamenting why the State Government will contemplate such move without adequate consultation with the people.
Speaking on the contentious issue, the President General, Owerri Community Assembly (OCA), Chief Christian Oweaya Anukam said he is not aware of plans by the State Government to relocate the market.
He said ‘I am the President General of Owerri Community Assembly, I have not been consulted or briefed and I have not been told anything pertaining to the relocation of the market. So for now, it is a rumour’
A leader in Owere Nchi Ise, Chief Geoffrey Nnawuchi, told Imo Trumpeta in an interview that Eke Ukwu Owere has been their ancestral heritage and it is impossible to move the market under whatever guise and excuse to elsewhere without the consent and approval of Owere people.
He condemned the intention of the Governor and the State Commissioner for Commerce and Industry for announcing the planned removal of the market without taking consideration the need to thoroughly discuss the issue with Owerri people.
He said ‘This was the genesis of the crisis between Amawom people and the State Government over Area k. They never consulted anyone; they never deemed it fit to speak to the owners of the land before they sent in bulldozers to clear the land. Of course, we showed them we are no pushovers and what rightly belongs to us cannot be taken away with force. You cannot take what belongs to us by force. It is not done anywhere’
It will be recalled that the State Commissioner for Commerce and Industry, Ichie Uche Best Mbanaso had announced the State Government’s plans to relocate the popular and ever busy Eke Ukwu Owerre Market located in the heart of Owerri Metropolis to Naze, a small community 15 kilometers away fromOwerriMunicipality.
Mbanaso was reported to have said that the market will be moved to INTERMARK site at Naze, a place designated for dealers in electronics, electrical and automobile wares.
This Newspaper learnt that the Eke Ukwu Owere market has remained at its present site for several decades. Previous attempts by the past military and Civilian Administrations to move the market away has been futile as Owerri indigenes; owners of the market resisted such attempts.
The people of Owere Nchi Ise and the Okorocha Administration have been on collision course for sometime. Early this year the people of Amawom, one of the five villages that make up Owere Nchi Ise rejected plans by the present Administration to forcefully take over a large landmass located at Area k World Bank Housing Estate to build a hotel and Ecumenical centre.
