By Toby Chuks
As a backdrop of the recent concluded local government elections in Anambra State, a group of market elders in Anambra State, under the umbrella of Anambra State Markets Elders Forum, (ASMEF) has called on Governor Chukwuma Soludo of Anambra State to also set machineries in motion for the conduct of election into the markets in the State that are under caretaker committees leadership.
In a press statement issued in Onitsha at the weekend, ASMEF said conducting elections and allowing the traders to choose leaderships of their choice in various markets in the state would usher in peaceful coexistence rather than keeping the present crop of caretaker committees who have ruled their respective markets for more than four years now.
President-General of ASMEF, Dede Uzor A Uzor, in the statement, said based on the principle of democracy in which platform Soludo was elected as Governor of Anambra state and local government chairmen elected recently, Soludo should conduct election in virtually all the markets in the state, starting from Anambra State Markets Amalgamated Traders Association, (ASMATA) which is the umbrella body of all the market associations in the state.
According to the statement, “ASMEF is calling on Soludo to commence the process of organizing elections in all the markets that still have caretaker appointees in the state, including ASMATA itself because all the existing caretaker committees have overstayed their tenure and are now bereft of quality ideas to keep on leading their various markets”.
“Election of leaders in the markets will no doubt inject fresh ideas as against the incumbent caretaker committees which have exhausted their ideas. Let the recent local government chairmanship election be extended to the whole markets in the state, starting from ASMATA”, said ASMEF.
