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Following the leadership crisis that rocked Amaimo market and the urgent need to restore peace, the President of Amalgamated Market and Allied Traders Association, ISAMATA, Hon Emmanuel Ezeanochie on July 21, 2021 visited the market, accompanied by some of his executive members to interface with traders in the area.
Addressing the traders, Ezeanochie averred that his primary assignment as president of ISAMTA is to make peace and ensure markets development in the state through the government ,adding that no meaningful progress can be achieved without peace, hence the need to have all the traders on one page.
He stated that he has gone round the market and taken record of the challenges facing the traders and assured them that in due time government will come to their aid.
He said that, he was worried that each time meeting of traders was held in Owerri, Amaimo market would hardly have a representative, fueling his suspension that all is not well which later turned out to be true as the market has been having leadership tussle. He said, the discovery prompted him to call the IMC chairman to appoint a representative.
“Our mission here is to restore peace. Now that you claim that you have a chairman already who is not the person appointed by the IMC chairman, we want you to furnish us with evidence that there was an election. If it is confirmed that there was an election that threw your chairman up, we shall work with him”, Ezeanochie stated.
He assured the traders that governor Hope Uzodinma means well for them but detests crisis, pointing out that if the crisis is resolved, development of the market will become feasible as nobody will be willing to invest in a crisis ridden environment.
Earlier, one Chief Christopher Mbagwu one of the stakeholders of the market had informed the ISAMATA delegation of the genesis of the problem and pleaded that the ISAMATA leadership which he described as very proactive will address it.
Most of the traders who spoke to this reporter expressed excitement that peace has finally returned to the market after a long while. They thanked the ISAMATA president for his wisdom in organizing them.