RSG Explains Delay In Mile 1 Market Stalls Allocation

The Rivers State Government says it will not allocate the completed Rumuwoji (Mile I) Market until the parallel traders unions of the market come together and agree on how the stalls should be shared among genuine displaced traders.

The state Commissioner for    Commerce and Industry, Prince Ogbonna Nwuke who said this in an interview with The Tide correspondent at the Port Harcourt International Airport, Omagwa assured government’s commitment in ensuring that the completed phase of the market is allocated to those traders at Afikpo street if they are ready to settle  their differences.

Prince Nwuke noted that the traders were not doing themselves any good by presenting to the government fake and contradictory lists of displaced traders when the government already has an authentic list.

He explained that government’s intention was to make the traders have a fair share hence it set up the allocation committee but expressed disappointment at the way and manner members of the Mile 1 Market Traders Association are going about it.

We have completed more than 900 stores which are supposed to have been allocated to the traders before now, but the two parallel bodies are in court because of personal interests. The committee is not biased but the traders are presenting lists of non-existing traders thereby making it difficult for the committee to carry out its assignment”, he stressed.

According to the commissioner, government has an authentic and genuine list of genuinely displaced traders who it wants to settle first to enable it start the second phase of the project, pointing out that until this is done, it can not do anything and advised the parallel unions to have a rethink of their actions in their general interest.

Prince Nwuke disclosed that government is doing its best to ensure that the International Airport Hotel, Omagwa resumes operation in December while the shopping mall along Port Harcourt/Aba Expressway will begin business in January 2011.

On Delta Hotels, he hinted that efforts are in top gear to give it a facelift and make it function effectively while a befitting complex is to be put in place to position it on an international status

Shedie Okpara