Anambra traders have been urged to ensure that their Permanent Voters Card (PVC) is acquired ahead of the 2023 general elections.
The markets leadership across the state met in Onitsha, the commercial hub of the state on Saturday where the President of Anambra State Markets Amalgamated Traders Association (ASMATA), Chief lkechukwu Ekwegbalu directed all the market chairmen in the 21 Local Goverment Areas of the state to take the message to their members.
“I told them to get their PVC to enable them to choose the candidate of their choice that must be of Igbo extraction irrespective of the political party the candidate comes from”.
“We want a goodman that will take us to the promised land. If you have PVC, you have gotten the chance to vote the candidate of your choice,” Ekwegbalu said.
Also speaking, the Secretary of Onitsha Main Market, Chief Obi Ifediora said that, “today’s meeting bothers on the need for the traders to acquire their PVC, cleanse their markets and ensure that the directive issued to them is implemented to the letter”
“I Personally went for voting machines and the Resident Electoral Commissioner, Mr Nkwachukwu Orji, gave me two for our market,” he said.
In his contribution at the meeting, the ASMATA Public Relations Officer, Hon. Sunday Anakor, expressed satisfaction with the President’s order to the traders adding, “they will abide by it”
“We want to ensure that the whole markets in the state are clean. It is a way of contributing our own quarter toward the cleanliness of the state,” he said.
Also piqued by the increasing refuse mountain and threatening epidemic in Onitsha and other commercial areas in Anambra state, the chairmen of all markets in the state have been warned to keep their environments clean or face sanction.
He reiterated that after one month any market chairman found out to have not complied with the order would be sanctioned.
He said that keeping the markets clean is in line with Gov. Charles Soludo’s resolve to make the state a better place to live in.
“I am giving them between two weeks to one month to clear the refuse, desilt the drainages and remove wares on the roads to allow for free flow of traffic”
“After the ultimatum I will go round the markets and anyone find out to have refused to comply with the order, we will use our taskforce to sanction them,” Ekwegbalu warned.
