A coalition of civil rights organisations working in Anambra State has raised an alarm over alleged attempts by the sacked leaders of 30 markets to bribe their way back into the positions.
Governor Chukwuma Soludo had dissolved the market executives and directed that caretaker committees be appointed to oversee affairs until proper elections are conducted.
But the civil rights organizations are alleging that the sacked market leaders have besieged the state government house in Awka, trying to get back in.
The coalition includes the International Society for Civil Liberties and Rule of Law, the Civil Liberties Organisation, and the Coalition of Human Rights and Democracy Organisations.
Comrade Aloysius Attah who spoke on behalf of the coalition reminded the sacked executives that no number of meetings and bribery would coerce the state government to reverse its order.
“The International Society for Civil Liberties and Rule of Law-Intersociety, the Southeast zone of the Civil Liberties Organization-Southeast, CLO and the Southeast-based Coalition of Human Rights and Democracy Organizations, SBCHROs; a coalition of over twenty rights and democracy groups are strongly advising the markets and their imposed and unopposed leaders affected by the recent announcement by the government of Anambra State led by Professor Charles Soludo dissolving them as part of the government’s sanitisation and democratisation exercise in the state’s markets to prepare their handover, pack and go,” he said.
“We have been receiving reports since the state government’s announcement, that bribery money in ‘Ghana-Must-Go’ bags and brown envelopes have been flying at different political quarters at the Awka Government House and top security formations by the affected market traders, so as to coerce the state government to reverse its announcement and allow for the continuation of ‘business as usual.’”
Comrade Attah urged Governor Soludo to be resolute on his position, and bring sanity into the commerce and industry sector in Anambra State.
