By Okechukwu Okechukwu
Anambra State governor, Professor Chukwuma Soludo, Friday, marked out over 1000 shops for demolition at Ochanja market, Onitsha.
Most of the marked buildings had structural defaults, including cracked walls and decking, felling pillars and sands, roads obstructions, among other challenges.
Soludo, who led a joint taskforce and professionals to monitor the various sections of the market, described the buildings as illegal construction with no extant approval from the government.
The governor, represented by the Commissioner for Commerce and Industry, Dr. Obinna Ngonadi, added that the administration has intention to decongest markets, as well as make them inhabitable to the International standard, and warned owners of illegal structures to quickly remove them or get ready to pay the government to that effect.
Also speaking, the Chairman, Anambra State Physical Planning Board, Mr Chike Maduekwe, assured that Anambra State Materials Testing Laboratory would visit all the markets to test the structural integrity of their buildings so as to find out those to be spared with some amendment and those to be outrightly demolished.
Speaking in an interview during the exercise, the Caretaker Committee Chairman, Ochanja market, Mr Bonaventure Muo, hailed the governor for the move, assuring that they would continue to support government programmes to sanitise the markets.
The team later visited Building Materials market at Ogidi and Ogbunike to access their level of compliance to the traders/markets enumeration exercise, and hailed traders for complying to the government orders.
Addressing the traders, governor Soludo said the data capturing exercise would have to gather comprehensive data of all traders and their enterprises with a view to taken proper care of their welfare, security and other purposes.
Speaking in a separate interviews, the Chairman of Building Materials market (Ogidi), Mr Jude Okonkwo and Mr Adinu Onyechi of Building Materials 2 and 3 (Ogidi and Ogbunike), commended the governor for the move, which they promised to mobilise all their members to participate actively as it was of their good interest.