The Afor Umuaka Market Building Committee ably led by HRM Eze A.C.A Ojinnaka (Ezesinaobi III of Umuaka Ancient Kingdom), in Njaba Local Government Area of Imo State, has asked the general public to disregard the protest carried out by few women who claim to be Umuaka women last weekend against the Building Committee, and the publications made in some Owerri -based local newspapers, saying that they were sponsored by unpatriotic and self-centered individuals from Uba Umuaka village.
A statement signed by the Secretary of the Committee, Barr. Philip Ajoku, and made available to newsmen in Owerri, said that the sponsors of the protest and publications cooked up various allegations against the Chairman and members of the Committee in order to distract them, as they not happy with the level of construction at Afor Umuaka market.
The release which read in parts said, “The attention of the Afor Umuaka Market Building Committee has been drawn to the wanton demonstration of a group of rented women who hurriedly moved around Afor-Umuaka Market on Saturday morning, July 22, 2019, on no clear grounds of protest and their locus in so protesting.
“Accordingly, the Committee wants to state as follows: That the so called demonstration is part of the continued distraction fronted by unpatriotic, selfish, self-centered and gold diggers, who are bent on distracting the progress of the construction of Afor Umuaka Market.
“We are quick to ask these questions, who are these women? Are they existing shop owners? Are they traders and members of Afor Umuaka Market Association? Are they representatives of women of Umuaka? Did they apply to buy shops and denied? And before the protest, did they write to the Committee or consulted the Committee for a meeting and were denied? Our answers to these questions are in the negative and to this extent, we see them as passers-by with respect to Afor-Umuaka, hence, the said protest was countered by the women and youths of Umuaka.
“The Committee further wants to state that contrary to the protesting women’s thought that the Imo State Government gave us millions of naira to build Afor Umuaka for which they are asking for account, the market is rather being built by Public Private Participation (PPP) arrangement whereby the Committee is strictly accountable to the investing public [Financiers]”.
Commenting on the purported vote of no confidence on Eze Ojinnaka, the Committee, who dismissed it with the wave of hand on the ground that it was done by uninformed people, said, “it is an irony to cast vote of no confidence on Eze Ojinnaka for building today’s edifice called Afor-Umuaka.
“All these show the quality of the protesters who were paid N2,000.00 each for carrying the placard by their sponsors. No right-thinking person in Umuaka will dream of casting vote of no confidence on Eze Ojinnaka because of his outstanding leadership qualities and achievements in the Community”.
However, investigation carried out after the protest staged by the women at Afor Umuaka Market, revealed that the Building Committees has lived beyond expectations, having constructed about 700 lock-up shops and 305 open shops and allotted them to original shop owners and others who paid for the shops. The process of the allocation, according to the beneficiaries, was very transparent Apart from this, all the shop owners who complied with the directive of the Committee by means of providing the required documents, received their allocations without encumbrance.
