Thugs stormed the Onitsha Shoe Dealers’ Market on Monday, causing chaos in the area.
DAILY POST learnt that several traders were severely brutalized during the attack.
Concerned traders, under the Emordi Shoe Dealers Association, have condemned the invasion, describing it as barbaric.
A video currently in circulation could show some of the traders battered by the thugs allegedly acting under the instruction of a former chairman of the Association, one Nwabueze Umeh.
One of the traders, who spoke under anonymity, alleged that Umeh had been instigating troubles in the market ever since his tenure ended many years ago.
According to him, he fought his immediate successor to a standstill and had continued to unleash the same treatment on the current chairman, Okwudili Anigbogu, whose election was said to have been supervised by the authorities of the Onitsha South LGA
The source said trouble started after Ume claimed that the election had been annulled by Governor Charles Soludo, through the governor’s PA on Markets.
“Meanwhile, there was no formal communication from the government to prove that such an order was given by the governor.
“The next thing we saw was that they stormed the market with thugs and some members of the state security operatives, known as SASA, and started brutalizing our members.
“The thugs, under the supervision of those that brought them, also left with the wares of some of the victims.
“The group has been notorious for arresting and detaining people for days without handing over to the police.
“In this instance, when they came to the market, Nwabueze Umeh prevented people from recording the assault, and confiscated phones belonging to some of the traders. The phones were destroyed there and then.”
When asked what could have led to the developments, the trader said the former chairman was doing everything to block a probe into his land deals when he was in office.
“What happened was that the government gave the traders land for an expansion of the market.
“However, Umeh hijacked the land and started selling the portions off as personal property.
“His successor took the matter to court in order to recover the land; that’s why he has been fighting since then, as the incumbent chairman also vowed to pursue the matter in court,” he further alleged.
The traders appealed to Governor Soludo to intervene in the matter in order to avoid a total breakdown of law and order as well as shedding of blood.
It was also gathered that the incumbent chairman and some others who were brutalized during the invasion are currently receiving treatment in different hospitals in the state.
Efforts by DAILY POST to obtain reaction from Umeh were not successful as of the time of filing this report as he neither answered calls nor responded to text message sent to him.
