Abia State governor Mr. Alex Otti has taken steps to sanitize the market leaderships in Umuahia and Aba in order to streamline revenue inflow from the markets.
Markets constitute a major source of internally generated revenue (IGR) for Abia State government and market leaders are critical in revenue collection.
Aba, the commercial hub tops the revenue baskets with 13 markets, some of which have acquired international status like Ariaria, while Umuahia follows behind with four markets.
The Special Adviser to the Governor on Trade and Commerce, Dr Chimezie Ukaegbu announced in a statement that new Management Committees have been put in place for the 17 markets in Aba and Umuahia.
The newly appointed members of the management committees of the various markets were initially scheduled for inauguration Thursday in Umuahia.
But Ukaegbu barely 24 hours before the inauguration, Ukaegbu issued a statement, saying that “the planned inauguration … “is hereby suspended”, adding that “a new date will be announced in due course”.
He also informed the market groups that “government also, by this notice, withdraws the list of those earlier appointed into the Management Committees of the various markets”. The special adviser did not give any reason for the new development.
However, the Chief Press Secretary to the Governor, Mr. Kazie Uko told our correspondent that the withdrawal of the earlier list of management committees was necessitated by some issues that popped up.
“We want to get a few things sorted out in order to carry everybody along,” he said.
Uko noted that the new administration of Alex Otti “is operating in an environment where things had been messed up hence “we need to put things in norder” to avoid giving anything to chance.