Symbol of Justice
By Emeka Osondu
The interim chairman of the major market in Awka, the Anambra State capital, Eke Awka, Mr. Charles Arinze, has assured that his administration would bring about positive change in the market, even as the President of Awka Market Traders Association, Hon. Kenneth Onuorah, declared Arinze’s tenure as illegal.
Addressing a rally of traders at the market’s park at the weekend, Arinze said he was touched by what he described as the under-development in the market and listed that he would complete the on-going work at the market’s hall by roofing it and ensure that electricity is restored to every shop as well as entrench measures to ensure cleanliness in the market.
But in a swift reaction to the development, the president of the five-man committee which an Awka High court gave an order to oversee the affairs of the market as a result of the litigation that trailed the election of the market’s the executive committee last year pending the determination of the suit, Hon. Onuorah, said the claim to the leadership position by Arinze was fraudulent illegal and unacceptable.
Onuorah said Arinze’s claim was in defiance of a subsisting contempt charge he instituted against the group, adding that during the hearing of the case, “the trial judge on December 17, 2012 had warned them to stop further flouting of court orders until March 4, 2013, when the contempt charge brought against them would be determined.”
He therefore expressed surprise that Arinze, one Charles Ikebudu and others, whom he uses as his foot-soldiers, had not heed the warning and had persisted in harassing, intimidating and extorting money from innocent traders.
THISDAY recalled that on May 21, 2012, an Awka High Court presided over by Hon. Justice J.C. Iguh ordered that Kenneth Onuorah and four others should oversee the affairs of the market pending the determination of a suit brought before it by one of the contestants in the market leadership election, Mr. Azubike Ezenwa, claiming that no election was held before his opponent, Chukwuezugo Nwozor, was declared winner