Via Punch:
Several market women at
Ogbaru Market in Anambra State were on Wednesday allegedly attacked by a
government agency, Ocha Brigade otherwise known as Governor Obiano’s Police.
Some of the injured
women were rushed to an unnamed hospital in Ogbaru.
Trouble began when the
brigade, led by one Kenneth Okonkwo, stormed the market and allegedly
shot into the air and thus forced the traders, mostly women to flee into
safety.
The invaders destroyed
goods worth huge sums of naira mostly plantains, water melon, tomatoes,
vegetable and allied goods.
Our correspondents
gathered that seven women were injured in the fracas.
The spokesperson for
the traders, Charles Orji, said, “We could not believe our eyes when these Ocha
Brigade people and their thugs numbering over 300 invaded the market this
afternoon.
“I got a phone call
that some hoodlums had invaded the relief market and on getting there, I saw
Okonkwo, the commander of Ocha Brigade with his men beating traders, destroying
their goods and shooting sporadically.
“ It was like a war. I
have not seen something like this before. They were beating these women like
beasts,” Orji said.
One of the injured
women, Mrs. Chinyere Okafor, a 35-year-old mother of five, told journalists
that she lost N45,000 cash and her goods.
An eyewitness, Zeribe
Ezeanuna, corroborated that the attack was like a war.
He said it appeared the
government of the day had no interest of the common people at heart.
He added, “They did not
inform anybody about their coming. They only invaded the market and shot
sporadically and injured people who had come to trade.”
Ocha Brigade has been
having issues with traders in the state over revenue collection.
The traders see
government’s levies and taxes as arbitrary.
Reacting, the state
Commissioner for Trade and Commerce, Mrs. Uzoamaka Ilobi, assured the traders
that the Chief Willie Obiano administration, being a responsive
government, would look into the attack.
She said the Ocha
Brigade’s operatives were working according to the directive of the government
to decongest roads which was exactly what they were carrying out when the
fracas ensued.
It was gathered that
the brigade men’s action followed the directive by the government to relocate
the traders because, according to the government, the traders were causing
obstruction along major roads.
-Punch
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