Suleiman Anyalewechi, Aba
Following the commencement of the 2024 business year, the Chairman of the Interim Management Committee of the Eziukwu Road Market Aba, Hon Alphonsus Udeigbo has harped on the need for traders and other users of the market to conduct their activities in strict compliance with the terms and conditions of the subsisting Memorandum of Understanding, MOU, recently entered into between the market and authorities of the National Agency for Food, Drugs Administration and Control, NAFDAC, particularly the area that prohibits the manufacturing, distribution and sales of all forms of counterfeit products within the market and its precincts.
Similarly, the Chairperson of the market’s prayer network, Sir Lambert Alaneme has warned that there will be no room at the market for all those engaged in questionable business activities, as the market is set to wean itself of all past negative antecedents.
The duo spoke separately, at the fourth special prayer session organized to herald the 2024 business year, which held at the market prayer ground on Thursday, February 1 2024.
It would be recalled that late December 2023 Eziukwu Road market was raided, and sealed for days with no fewer than 200 shops and business premises closed over alleged engagement in the production and sales of fake products by NAFDAC.
The market was however reopened for normal business activities after the signing of the MOU between the regulatory body and the market leadership.
Besides the prohibition of sales of fake products, the MOU also empowers NAFDAC to visit the market at least once in a month to monitor compliance level.
Sir Udeigbo, who is also the Chairman of All Chairmen of Aba markets appealed to traders not to waiver in their support for the Governor Alex Otti led Abia state government, in its committed and determined efforts to serve the people, and change the narrative of the state.
He particularly lauded the state government for being able to create an enabling environment for the thriving of business and other related economic activities, most especially in Aba within its short period in the saddle.
Chief Udeigbo assured traders and other market users that 2024 would be a year of consolidation of all the gains of 2023, even as he enjoined traders to eschew all acts capable of eroding the modest strides so far made in repositioning the market.
Sir Alaneme while appreciating the leadership of Eziukwu market for its thoughtfulness in organizing the prayer session ,urged traders and other market users to use the opportunity provided by the prayer session to interrogate their past business conducts , noting that the market will no longer serve as a sanctuary for those committed to shady business transactions.
The Officiating Minister of God Dr Chidi Okoroafor, cautioned the traders on the choices they make in life, warning that some choices made could either make and or mar to the extent of affecting unborn generations.
“You don’t have a choice as to where you are born. But you have the choice as to where you want to be and or go. The choices you make now in your business and or other activities will surely come to affect you either negatively and positively in life” Dr Okoroafor stated.
One of the high points of the occasion was the distribution of some palliatives to some widows by the Eziukwu Road Market leadership.