The Anambra State Traders’Forum (ATF), has accused the CTC chairman of the Drug Market, Chief Donatus Ajanma, of allegedly diverting the money belonging to the market running into tens of million of naira.
In the petition signed by Chief Zack Unah, Publicity Secretary,(ATF), the traders alleged that the Anambra State Government collected huge sums of money from the aspirants ranging from N250, 000, for chairmanship aspirants, 200,000, for the post of secretary, N150,000, Vice-chairmanship position, M50, 000 for other positions as against other markets that paid N20, 000 for the purchase of forms.
They said unfortunately after collecting such huge amount from the contestants, the election was arbitrarily put off to allow Ajanma from Omambala to emerge as the Caretaker Committee Chairman because they knew that he would not have won the post of chairman in Ogbogwu market if credible, free and fair election is conducted in the Union.
ATF in their statement alleged that all the monies generated by the caretaker committee that were supposed to be used to work for the market were allegedly diverted by Ajanma to his personal purse without the consent of the members of CTC.
“He does not give the members of the Committee anything, rather he boasts that he has connection in Awka and sidelines them.
He gathers everything for himself. If anybody asks him about the money they generated, he tells you whether you know how much he spends in Awka” said the traders.
They continued : The money generated from the market is almost N100m. The money includes the money from Ogbogwu park, trucks, money generated from electricity (each trader pays N1, 000.00 per month), companies’ annual dues, ID cards, donations from importers and stakeholders, percentage from stallage fees, barrow tolls at the cost of N50 per a barrow”.
Unfortunately, said the traders, the Commissioner for Commerce, Market and Wealth Creation, Chief Uchenna Okafor, popularly called Wiper seemed to be working in concert with Ajanma to etnrone Omambala agenda in the market, since all complaints forwarded to him fell on deaf ears.
They said they had equally sent a petition to the Commissioner on behalf of the aggrieved members where they outlined the misappropriation and misapplication of the market fund but it was swept under the carpet without response.
ATF said they had authoritatively gathered that the members of Caretaker Committee were not happy and had sworn to disrupt or boycott the election if the Commissioner refused to compel Mr Ajamma to account for all the money he collected since he was made the CTC chairman of the market.
The traders said : Ajamma who was imposed on other candidates as Caretaker Committee Chairman cannot preside over the election he will be a candidate. It is not possible. It negates the tenets of democracy. It is either he conducts election for other candidates or he steps down, hand over to somebody who is not contesting the election or to the electoral committee chairman if he wants to contest. This is to ensure fairness in the election”
ATF said Ajanma’s Electoral Committee was flawed because he single handedly constituted the Committee, hence the traders have vowed to resist it because the current CTC members were not aware of plan for any election in the market.
The group said to avoid crisis in the market which could cause break down of law and order, the election which has been slated for this January should be shelved to allow the members of the market to resolve all issues, ATF cautioned.
