PH Fruits Traders Call For Market Reconstruction

With the rains setting in and no sign of the Kaduna fruits market receiving a facelift in sight, traders and customers have once more expressed worry about when the rains would set in fully.

A cross-section of the traders who spoke to our correspondent on the impending flooding of the market expressed regret that over the years, the market has been neglected.

Felicia, a dealer on assorted fruits said she has been selling in the market for the past fifteen years and instead of the sanitation situation in the market being looked into, it seemed, “they are playing politics with it.”

According to her, she was aware that authorities of the market have been having meetings with the Port Harcourt City Local Government to come to their aid without any result so far.

A loader who gave his name as John Walson said he has been doing business in the market for a long time and has always wondered why the market has not been repaired.

He said the efforts of the market authorities and the State Environmental Authority in sanitizing the market has been remarkable even as he said that total sanity of the market could only be achieved when the market is reconstructed.

For Mrs Joy Peters, the market should be relocated as there was no room for expansion on the present site.

She said the present site has made it impossible for more traders to be engaged in business at the market thereby reducing many prospective business people, “especially the widows and single mothers,” she said.

Efforts to speak with the executive members of the union proved abortive as officers at the secretariat who craved anonymity said it’s chairman and one of the elders travelled out of the state on official matters.