Igbo telecoms traders decry alleged market demolition in Bayelsa

Traders at the trendy Global System for Mobile (GSM) Communication Village at Tombia Roundabout in Yenagoa, the Bayelsa State capital, have lamented the demolition of their stalls and loss of goods worth billions of naira.

They, therefore, called on the Governor Duoye Diri administration to open the borders to revamp their economic statuses.

The security apparatus of the Bayelsa State COVID-19 Task Force had in the early hours of yesterday began demolishing of all illegal structures at the market.

While the sellers claimed that they were not given pre-informed, the government, however, insisted that prior notices were issued via radio and flyers.

Speaking yesterday, chairman of the GSM Market Traders Union, William Eze, deplored the loss of “over 2000 jobs at a time when families can hardly feed as a result of the pandemic.”

His words: “The truth of the matter is that as a chairman, I didn’t get any official notice.

Yesterday, being Saturday, you know we are having lockdown, so as a chairman, I was supposed to be in my house, to respect the order of the Bayelsa state government.

“As chairman of the market, I was supposed to be the first to get the notice, but I didn’t get any until yesterday when my Chief Security Officer hinted me of it and I called some officials but they denied it only for me to hear this morning (yesterday) that the markets and shops are being destroyed.”