Senior Correspondent, OKEY MADUFORO, writes on the efforts by Anambra State Government to rid Onitsha of street trading, and reactions by affected traders.
Onitsha, the commercial nerve centre of the South East, was Monday, May 25 literally swooped on by operatives of Anambra State Joint Task Force on Operation Clean and Healthy Environment, set up by the Governor Willie Obiano administration to ensure healthy living by residents of the state.
That fateful day, the dreaded task force, which residents refer to as the Ocha Brigade, stormed Onitsha main market accompanied by personnel of the armed forces, police and Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC). Their mission, TheNiche learnt, was to enforce compliance on the state law against street trading. And they were battle-ready for the operation.
In going about the exercise, shop and house-owners on the entire stretch of the Old Market Road through the Abada Fabric Market down to the highbrow Bright Street were taken unawares by the task force, and defaulters dealt with appropriately.
As part of the punishment, traders whose wares were displayed either atop the drainage system or along the major streets had their goods confiscated for breaking the law. Our reporter gathered that goods worth over N7 million were seized by the task force, though not without stiff resistance by the affected traders.
Incidentally, while the operation lasted, some irate youths in the main market started chanting slogans against the task force – a situation that led to a showdown between the task force and the defaulting traders. It was alleged that at some point, street urchins attacked the vehicles conveying confiscated goods. The ensuing fracas, it was learnt, led to exchange of punches, leaving about 23 persons injured in the process.
The incident, however, drew the intervention of officers and men of the Navy and the Onitsha 302 Artillery Regiment who swiftly dispersed the crowd of protesters that had already had a full dose of the police teargas.
Consequently, the operation was temporarily halted to avert further crisis, while the Onitsha Police Area Command deployed more men to the market.
The operations of Ocha Brigade in Anambra came on the heels of government’s expression of concern over the obstruction of major streets in Onitsha by traders which, it is said, affected not only vehicular movements but also commercial activities in the City.
Some traders and shop-owners who spoke with TheNiche on the development blamed the action of the culprits on the encouragement they receive from an alleged cabal in the area.
A trader, Nnadozie Maduka, for instance, said: “What is happening now is good and we salute the Ocha Brigade for that. These people come with their tables and mount them in from of our shops. With that, our customers cannot gain entrance into our shops.
“They pay some money as levy to those illegal market tax-collectors who in turn ensure that they remain along the major road to do business.”
Mrs. Chinwe Nnalue, who deals on baby wears, also decried the activities of street traders. “We pay our rents and other levies to the state government, but do not make sales as we should. These people that mount their tables in front of our shops will not let us do business. If you complain, those touts that they pay illegal levies to would come to warn you and there is nothing you can do about it,” she said.
Some of the street traders that were affected by the operations of the Ocha Brigade, however, put a lie on the allegations of the shop-owners.
“It is not true. We pay our levies to the state government through a task force set up by the Onitsha North and Onitsha South local government councils, and we have our receipts to show. So we are surprised that the same government came to the market to confiscate our goods. Is the government telling us that we are paying to the wrong people, or what exactly do they mean?”one of the traders, who pleaded anonymity, asked.
Addressing the issue of the legality of the payments, the former Public Relations Officer (PRO) in the Ministry of Commerce and Industry, Shedrack Nnanna, said: “What we were collecting then was stall and development levies. We did not collect levies from those that did not have shops.”
When this reporter visited the two local government areas in Onitsha, no official of the councils offered to react on the allegation that the roadside traders pay levies to the councils.
However, a staff who would not want her name on print said: “There is this age-long racketeering in Onitsha North, Onitsha South, Ogbaru, Idemili North and Aguata Council areas, with some top people collecting these levies without paying to the state government. The council chairman may not be aware of what they are doing, but government is being ripped off through that means.”
Also confirming the allegation, the Managing Director and Superintendent General of Ocha Brigade, Kenneth Okonkwo, remarked: “It was discovered with dismay that a cabal of unauthorised persons are engaged in illegal collection of tax and internally-generated revenue (IGR) by inhuman methods of intimidation, hence denying the state government revenue needed for the development of Anambra State. This trend must stop. Enough is enough. Victims of such dehumanisation activities should call 08068282812, come to Ocha Brigade office with receipts issued to them by unauthorised persons for verification and prosecution of offenders.”