Traders under the umbrella of South-East Amalgamated Markets Traders Association, SEAMATA, has condemned the invasion of markets by pro-biafran agitators.
It stated that the traders, as core Igbo men and women supports the efforts to restore Biafra through non-violence and not through violence agitation as could be seen recently when agitators during a protest march forcefully into markets and started harassing traders for opening their shops.
A press statement jointly signed by the President-General of SEAMATA, Chief Okwudili Ezenwankwo and the Secretary-General, Temple Udeh, said traders, though in support of the agitation for the actualization of Biafra, condemn in its totality a situation where protesters get infiltrated by hoodlums who use the protest to loot and do all sorts of things in the markets.
The group further condemned the situation where agitators in the name of protest invade markets to vandalize and destroy shops, vehicles and other valuables belonging to their fellow Igbos.
“To set the record straight and for the purposes of clarity, the traders are not challenging the constitutional right of peaceful assembly of any one.
“We only condemned the attitude of the protesters or miscreants that infiltrated them, that went into markets, chased the traders out and closed the entrances to the market”.
“It was the maturity of the leadership that directed the security men in these markets not to challenge them, that forestalled casualties. The protest was not peaceful as it recorded casualities. If the Pro-Biafra protesters held their protest in a field or any stadium, there wouldn’t have been any issue to warrant all these misrepresentation of intentions,” the statement said.
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