Traders at the World Bank market in Owerri, Imo State, on Saturday protested over the demolition of parts of the market by the Owerri Capital Development Authority.

While bulldozers destroyed the structures, the traders lamented that the state government only gave them notice to quit on Thursday, adding that the demolition of the structure was an insensitive decision by the state government.

That some traders lost valuable goods to the demolition.

But the General Manager of OCDA, Innocent Ikpamezie, said only shanties were destroyed by his agency.

Ikpamezie explained that he had in May and November, 2020, gone to the market to inform the traders of the government’s decision to demolish the shanties.

Ikpamezie said the agency would not only stop at the demolition of the shanties but would also make sure that all the traders use structures in the main market.

He said, “I personally went to that market in May and November, 2020, with a public address system, telling the traders to vacate because the government wanted to destroy the shanties. What we destroyed was not the structures in the market but the shanties that were defacing the market.

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