…Emeka Woke pledges to convey complaint to Governor
By Kelechi Esogwa-Amadi
Chief of Staff to the Rivers State Government House, Chief Emeka Woke, has promised to convey the demand of the Rumuwoji Mile 1 Market shop owners that their shops should be allocated to them first before balloting the rest, to the State Governor, Nyesom Wike, when he returns from his travel.
Emeka Woke made this promise on Thursday, 5th March 2020, when he addressed the protesting Mile 1 market traders at the large motor garage in front of the government house gate.
After patiently listening to some of the traders, including their vice-chairman and a very old woman who said it was the Late Dr. Obi Wali that helped her to get a shop in the market, Chief Emeka Woke told them that Governor Nyesom Wike was not around and promised to convey their message to him as soon as he returns.
The original shop owners at the Rumuwoji (Mile 1) Market, Port Harcourt, today, protested over the decision of the Rivers State Government to ballot the shops in the newly completed 2nd phase of the ultra-modern market complex.
The traders, who gathered under the aegis of Mile 1 Shop Owners Association, Phase 2, marched from Mile 1 flyover through Azikiwe Road to the Government House gate with their placards, some of which read: “We don’t want balloting,” “Governor Wike help us,” etc.
They had earlier protested on Saturday, 29th February 2020, in Port Harcourt, during which they threatened to occupy the Government House should the state government disregard their call and go ahead to ballot the shops.
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Addressing the media on Thursday, one of the executive officers of the Rumuwoji Mile 1 Market Shop Owners Association, Phase 2, Hajia Gambari, said their reason for embarking on the protest was to register their anger over the decision of the state government to allocate the shops by balloting and to draw the attention of the Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Wike, to their pitiable plight as the original shop owners who are now at risk of losing their shops.
She further explained: “I sell at Rumuwoji Mile 1 Market. I’m a trader there – I’m one of the shop owners at the market. I’ve been in that market ever since they gave it out to me. I’m a citizen of Nigeria born and brought up in Rivers State. My mum owned a shop there, not two, it’s about three that she owned there; and that’s the only property she left for me. All we’re saying to His Excellency is that we’re appealing to him: let him help us and give back the shops to the rightful owners because we are the rightful owners. We have our proper documents from the 70s. We don’t need balloting; the balloting is as if you are playing gamble. You may lose out, you may gain. Why is it that we that have suffered from the first fire incident, the second one, to the third one and we will not gain anything?”
On why they do not want balloting, Hajia Gambari said: “We cannot accept balloting. Balloting is not the proper way to do it. The first phase has been built by Rotimi Amaechi, which he gave to the rightful owners through the ledger he collected from the City Council and documents he followed up. The phase 1 is there, already existing for years now – that was even commissioned by Rotimi Amaechi himself. Now the second phase has been delayed and has been built. When he (Wike) was campaigning, he promised us that after building, he will give it to the rightful owners. We thanked him very well and we appreciate what he did in that market. We voted for him; we campaigned for him. We’re appealing: let him follow up that promise he made to us because I believe promise is a debt. We’re begging him; we cannot fight him. He’s our father. He’s the number one citizen of Rivers State. We’re only appealing to him; let him temper justice with mercy and give us back our shops. We’ve suffered a lot. There are lots of losses already. From the day he announced this balloting, some of us have depreciated and are slimming down and we have not even done the balloting and we’re sick already, talkless of when you go there and pick no, you will end up losing your life or having partial stroke. We don’t want that. Let him please give us back our shops. ”
In her own comments, Mercy Obene, Financial Secretary, Rumuwoji Mile 1 Shop Owners Association, Phase 2, said the essence of the protest was to beg Governor Wike to give them back their shops as the original shop owners.
Mercy Obene, a widow, added: “As the market got burnt down, not only did we lose our money, we lost our stalls. But when he was preparing for election, he came to Mile 1 market and when he entered that place, he made a promise to us that this market that got burnt, nobody will collect it from the owners. That he will build the market and give it back to the owners and that he will not allow anybody to collect it from us. We knelt down on that environment and began to pray for him…I’ve owned that shop since 1980. I don’t have any other property. As a man of dignity, he should call us – the shop owners – and settle us. They can then ballot the remaining ones.”
During a similar protest on Saturday, the Mile Market traders had also vehemently rejected the idea of balloting of the shops and called on Governor Nyesom Wike to come to their aid.
One of the traders, Queen Blessing O. Amadi, who said she was of Rebisi extraction, revealed that she had been trading in the market for more than twenty years, adding that her father, Dede Amadi Wekena, was the first person who laid the foundation of the market.
She recalled that when the market got burnt, Governor Nyesom Wike came there and promised to rebuild it and give the shops back to the rightful owners, wondering why the government would now want to do balloting.
“We don’t want balloting because we’re the real shop owners. The shop that is there is more than enough for the shop owners to have. I don’t know the reason why they want to do balloting. He (Governor Wike) should give back the shops to the real owners. The remaining ones, if wants to do ballot, he can do so. We’re appealing to him: as he told Fruit Garden that he will give back the shops to the real owners, he should give the shops to the real owners in Mile 12 Market,” Queen Blessing Amadi said.
Lawyer to the traders, Higher King, said a case had been filed in the State High Court to stop the planned allocation of stalls at the newly rebuilt markets through the balloting system.
He said he expected the Rivers State Government led by Barr Nyesom Wike to know that once a suit has been filed, the status quo remains until the court decides on the matter.
Higher King noted: “Governor Nyesom Wike, as a lawyer, knows that once a case is filed in Court, the status quo remains; you cannot ballot what originally belongs to the people.”
