Edo Market Women, Men Protests Extortion by Waste Managers, Council Officials

Adibe Emenyonu in Benin City

Hundreds of market women and men from the Oba Market in Benin City, capital of Edo State, trooped to the streets to protest an alleged extortion by waste managers in connivance with market leaders and Oredo Local Government Council officials.

The protesting market men and women who spoke to journalists on yesterday at the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ) Press Centre, Benin where they were received by the State Chairman of NUJ, Mr. Festus Alenkhe, lamented the good old days when they used to have associations that work for the good of members.

The Spokesperson of the Traders, Mrs. Veronica Eboshiogue, said; “Those days we use to have associations but now everybody is after his/her pockets. They just wake up and impose levies and nobody can speak for us. If it was the time of Oshiomhole, when we cry out like this the government will answer us but now nobody helps.

“In December last year, they said we should pay N1000 for sacrifice from the palace and if you don’t pay they will pack your things away. The same last year, they increased our sanitation fee from N200 to N500 and less than one year again and just last Monday, they came with a notice that everybody will now be paying N1000 each for sanitation while squatters will be paying N150 daily.”

Eboshiogue further stated that “recently they (market) officials came to collect N1000 each to clean our drainage only for us to discover they were directed to come and clear and not collect money from us.”

Another Trader, Mrs. Blessing Osaro, said that “they have broken the market walls and allocated to people so we that are inside cannot even sell, yet we are the ones paying” 

When contacted, however, the Director of Revenue, Oredo local Government Area, Mr. Agbons Uyigwe, said that the increment was as a result of complains from waste managers over the cost of diesel as their entire vehicles use diesel and that the new rate was a compromise compared what they demanded.

According to him, “we cannot leave our markets in the filthy situation they are with prevailing diseases like lassa fever, monkeypox. So we met the waste managers and they suggested that instead of N500 sanitation levy from store owners and N50 from squatters, the store owners should now pay N3,000 monthly while the squatters will pay N300 daily.

But we told them (waste managers) it is not possible so we agreed that for the stores, we will increase it to N1000 and for squatters to N100 against what they requested.”

On the breaking of market walls for allocation, he said that would be taken care of once the council is able to raise the needed funds to rebuild the market, which was few years ago gutted by fire.