Weeks after the Bayelsa State government ordered the relocation of the popular Okutukutu/Etegwe Market to a new site along Tombia/Amasomma Road in Yenagoa, the ensuing rifts between the state government and the affected traders have continued to generate tension in the state capital, Daily Trust Saturday reports.
Already, the traders and market union leadership have rejected the new site provided by the state government, and instead opted for a private market arena to carry out their businesses, while government deployed security personnel to stop them.
The traders vowed to shut down market operations in the state in protest against the draconian action of the government to forcefully remove them from their place of business to a swampy environment that is susceptible to flooding during the rainy season, saying the state government is insensitive to their plight, with regards to the new market site.
Daily Trust Saturday recalled that the state government forcibly relocated the traders from the Okutukutu/Etegwe market located along the Airport Road to a new site about three days to the second-term inauguration of Governor Douye Diri and his deputy, Lawrence Ewhrudjakpo, on February 14, in order to clear the traffic for the guests that were billed to attend the event.
Recently, during a meeting with leaders of the traders association and representatives of the various units in the market, The deputy governor, Senator Lawrence Ewhrudjakpo, said one of the reasons for the relocation was that the former market site was sitting on a high pressure Shell oil pipeline known as the Kolo Creek to Gbarain Trunk Line, which posed grave danger to the lives of those transacting business there.
Speaking on the challenges the traders faced after the relocation, the chairman of Okutukutu/Etegwe Market, Alhaji Dahiru Yauketi, lamented that the state government did not prepare the new market site properly before hurriedly relocating them.
He complained that traders had not been making sales since the government forced them to evacuate the old market site on February 11, 2024, adding that the location is a marshy environment that is prone to massive flooding.
He lamented that traders have been recording losses since their relocation as customers were not coming to buy things from them, explaining that customers prefer to stop around the old market site where some private markets still exist, to buy the things they need instead of coming to the environmentally-poor new market site.
"The government allocated this place to us and relocated us from the former market. Government has not finished preparing this present place, but all of us agreed to come. Secondly, the government did not finish the road to this market. Customers are not coming to this (new) market place. We come here every morning but can't sell anything," he said.
Other traders, including Favour Sunday, Gladys Internet, Sunday Obi, Elo Edward and Madam Omo, who sell tomatoes and peppers among others, stated that apart from the lack of access road, there is no water, toilet facility and light around the new market site.
They said: "One basic thing we want the government to do for us is road. Number two, there should be no private markets anywhere. When the government was closing that pipeline market, the governor told us that he will give us a site and everybody will move here. He gave us this site without a road, still we moved here and now we are seeing private markets everywhere.
"When you go to Okutukutu, by School Road, there is a private market. At the corner of one house, there is also a private market. Because of that, we that agreed to come to the new site are suffering. I have been here in the past one month and I have not sold one basket of tomatoes.
"So, we need government to come and do the road for us; give us water, toilet, light, and seal (off) every private market. That's what we want the government to do for us now."
Also speaking, a meat seller in one of the private markets, Gbenga Bamigboye, described the new market site as "a place not meant for human beings at all."
He said: "When the state government built Swali market some years ago, people were not there, but they roofed the place and finished it before people moved to that place.
"There is nothing to show that this place is a market, for me, everybody has a choice, nobody is feeding anybody. Anybody that feels like staying there should go to that place, after all market is not supposed to be in one place.
"Some people have space there while others like me don't have, that is why the place is scanty and people prefer to come to this private market place. But if that new market is well organised, many people will like to stay there. There is no way you can force the abattoir people to move to that place because you are not the one feeding them.
"They could have taken care of all the necessary things before telling people to move to that place. That place is not like a market place. It is just like a place where they dump cows, it's supposed to be where cows will stay like the way Bayelsa palm is, because there is water there and when they come out from the bush, they will drink. It is not where human beings will stay and do business," he said.
Unknown men burn private market after Diri's visit
A private market popularly known as 'Alakeme Market' that was used as alternate business place for traders after the relocation from the old market was on Saturday night burnt down by unknown persons, barely 24 hours after Governor Douye Diri visited to admonish traders to relocate to the government approved site.
It was learnt that the Alakeme market cropped up immediately the state government closed down the Etegwe/Okutukutu market last month. According to the traders, the private market has been preventing other traders from relocating to the new market site along Tombia/Amasomma Road.
Traders returned on Sunday to observe that the private market has been gutted by fire amidst tight security around the market.
Govt admits traders' inconveniences, suffering in new market site
Governor Douye Diri, who had on Friday stopped his convoy to address the traders at the new market site on his way from the airport, expressed concern over the inconveniences suffered by the traders in the new market site as a result of government's inability to make the environment conducive.
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The governor, according to the statement by his Chief Press Secretary, Mr Daniel Alabrah, said the new market site would be completed immediately his second term cabinet was formed.
Also, in a trending 10-second video, the governor was heard during the abrupt stopover at the new market site directing the Chief Security Coordinator/Coordinator of Bayelsa Community Safety Corps, Brig-Gen. Eric Angaye (rtd) to make sure that all those traders in private markets relocate to the new market site.
Also, the deputy governor, Senator Lawrence Ewhrudjakpo, during a meeting with leaders of the traders association and representatives of the various units in the market, said that the decision of the state government to relocate the market to its new site is bothered on the need for safety and a conducive operating environment.
He said the former market site was sitting on a high-pressure Shell oil pipeline known as the Kolo Creek to Gbarain Trunk Line, which posed grave danger to the lives of those transacting business there.
He emphasised that as a responsible government, the state would not fold its hands and watch people die avoidable deaths in the state.
He observed that the relocation had further enhanced the beauty and security of the area, and therefore, appealed to the traders to remain peaceful and law abiding as government works within the limits of available resources to make the new site conducive for them.
