Onitsha Medicine Market Chairman Commits To Members’ Welfare, Sanity In Distribution
Mr Ndubuisi Chukwulota, the Caretaker Chairman of Onitsha Medicine Market has said that he would continue to make the business interest and welfare of members his priority.
Chukwulota said this while reacting to moves by some members of the Market to remove him from office in Awka. .
Recall that a group under the aegis of ‘Team Excellence’ called for his removal for allegedly working with officials of the National Agency for Food Drugs Administration and Control (NAFDAC) to seal the market and extract money.
They also accused him of increasing the security levy arbitrarily.
Chukwulota dismissed the call for his removal as desperate and jealous driven because the market was calm and progressing.
On the allegations of working with NAFDAC against his members, Chukwulota said it was unfounded as the Agency was a federal establishment with exclusive right to regulate medicine production and distribution across the country.
He said his leadership had no hand in NAFDAC operations but would rather collaborate with the agency to ensure that products sold in the markets were original, valid and stored appropriately in the interest of public health.
“How could I have worked with NAFDAC when I was also made to pay a fine, I led some members of my Exco to sign an agreement to enable NAFDAC to open the market but these same groups refused to stand for our members,” he said.
Chukwulota commended Gov. Chukwuma Soludo for his timely intervention when the market was shut down for screening and ensuring that it was reopened in good time.
The caretaker chairman said there was no increase in levy as alleged but clarified that traders agreed unanimously to pay N1,000 to enable security men to work 24 hrs during the period the market was shut down.
“These people are just politicians masquerading as traders, they do not have a shop here, they just want to create a problem where there is none, thinking that they can use this trouble to blackmail the governor.
“How can they say a leadership that is set up to take care of the interest of traders are conniving with NAFDAC, what they did here was a national assignment that took place in other states.
“I was talking with NAFDAC and also begging the government to intervene and thank God Mr Governor stepped in to make sure the operations ended earlier than before.
“When the market was shut down, our security men needed to work morning and night, we then agreed to double the levy so we can raise the money after we went back to normal, what are they talking about,” he said.
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Chukwulota said the Onitsha Medicine Market was strategic to the country and a source of livelihood to thousands of families insisting that could not be surrendered to those who would encourage nefarious activities.
He said members of the group were suspended by the Anambra government when they created a parallel leadership adding that they had been in the habit of violating any rule meant to ensure sanity in the market.
“They supported the people who manhandled NAFDAC officials who came for enforcement, they engineered some people to take NAFDAC to Court just because they do not want the agency to regulate the market.
“They say I am from the same community as the governor but they have not said what I am doing wrongly, they are not acting with the int
erest of the people at heart,” he said
