By Efio-Ita Nyok
CONVERSEER spoke with the embattled petty trader last Friday in the Shopping Centre Complex (open area), Watt Market, Calabar, and he claimed to be experiencing chronic headaches and insomnia from the beatings he received last time out.
Chinedu Igwe, a sickly trader who has been tormented and beaten into a coma by thugs and council members hired by the municipal authority and abandoned by the local government in Calabar South LGA, has said that he has been experiencing frequent headaches and insomnia ever since the occurrence.
In the meantime, trader Igwe revealed that his open space at the Watt Market Shopping Center Complex in Calabar had been leased to two individuals for the reported sum of one hundred and fifty thousand Naira (N150,000.00) only in addition to the daily toll of seven hundred and fifty Naira (N750,000.00) only — an extortion that had initially sparked a dispute between the petty traders and the council authority.
The reported yearly rent lease of 150,000 Naira represents an increase from the previous rate of 15,000 Naira. A merchant from the southeast of the country allegedly cannot obtain leased open spaces directly from the council; instead, they must go through an Efik resident of the state. It is claimed that this N150,000.00 is only payable by Efik traders (in Cross River).
According to Igwe, “Since then I have been suffering from steady headaches, I told my colleagues yesterday that I want to take some time out to treat myself.
“You know, I went to the market the other day to see if I can sell at my space. I was still arrested again. So, I queried them asking: are you arresting me despite the doctor’s report you are aware of? How do you want me to take the treatment without food, nothing? I was even detained for 7 hours until the Divisional Police Officer, DPO asked them to release me. How will I live, and survive with my family? You took away my means of livelihood, money, should I start begging?” Igwe said.
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He added that “My colleagues have been warned to steer clear of me, not to interact with me, not to relate with me. Those who are willing to pay the N150,000 were further tasked to swear an affidavit in court saying that they will withdraw their membership of the petty traders association at Shopping Center Complex, Watt Market and that they will not appear in court to testify in respect of the ongoing issues between petty traders and Calabar South authority”.
Recall that Igwe, the Vice Chairman and VC of the Petty Traders Association of the Shopping Center Complex at Watt Market, was hospitalised after being battered into a coma, as reported by CONVERSEER on January 2 of this year. Petty traders at and leaving the complex are said to have been attacked, harassed, intimidated, and beaten up by hoodlums on orders from the Calabar South LG authority.
Remember also that the Calabar South Council Authority announced in a circular from last year that it would remove the traders from the facility on December 31, 2022, even though some leases, like Igwe’s, would expire in March.
When thugs raided the complex facility last Monday morning, purportedly acting on the orders of the local council authority, they evacuated some of the minor shopkeepers whose rent was still in effect, according to the traders.
