President, Ifo Igbo Market Traders, Kingsley Sunny, speaks to BIODUN BUSARI about threats from hoodlums at the Ifo market before Mrs Eze was killed
How long have you been the leader in this market?
I have spent more than 30 years in this market, but I’ve only been the president for eight years.
Do you know the person responsible for the death of Mrs Blessing Eze?
The guy who stabbed her is called ‘Usher’. He was in the company of other touts numbering 15. According to eyewitnesses, they asked her for money, and she told them to come back. They said she should borrow the money.
She was explaining to them that she had just come to the shop. They were scattering her goods, and all of a sudden, a knife landed on her chest. It was a horrible experience.
Were there no people around when the altercation was on?
There had always been arguments of this nature whenever these thugs were extorting money from us. In the past, we have had minor cases such as arguments or altercations. All this was still linked to cheating and intimidation coming from one group to another.
So, on this fateful day, nobody knew it would lead to a senseless killing. It was when she shouted that we ran out of our shops. We saw that she was gasping for breath.
How come the people in the market could not get the perpetrator or one of the culprits?
In that instance, everybody was trying to save the woman’s life. So, the perpetrators of the crime had fled.
Has there been any manhunt for the killer?
I can’t answer that because people have been saying a lot. The Igbo market leaders went to the police station to write a statement. I’m part of the leaders. Nobody told us if he had been arrested or not. I didn’t see him.
Has there been any clash before in the market that might have caused this incident?
No. There was never anything like that. The issue was not with the traders. One of the reasons why we shut down our businesses was to prevent things like that. The tension was high in the market, and we wanted our people to be calm. We also had our meetings to say ‘enough is enough’ to these hoodlums carrying out the illegal act of extorting money from our people.
There are legal fees that we pay in the market, but the illegal collection of money that cannot be accounted for was disturbing. They would come and give us three to four tickets to collect money. All these things are extortion.
Have you challenged them before to stop the extortion?
There are threats whenever we challenge them. Some of them will say we should go to our states if we don’t want to be extorted. Some even threaten to kill us. There are times when we would not sell anything, yet we would part with our hard-earned money. That is why we are calling on the government to come to our rescue now. We’re tired. This is unbearable at the moment. We require government intervention. We, the Igbo traders, seek to draw the attention of the government at all levels to address this issue.
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