South-East group, under the aegis of the Coalition of Igbo Unions, has urged the Abia State Governor, Alex Otti, to rescind his alleged plan to evict Northern cattle traders from his state. The appeal is coming barely one week after about 70 decomposing bodies and skeletons were discovered near Abia cattle market Lokpanta in the Umuchieze area. “This is because the move by Alex Otti to forcefully eject the Northern businesses at the cattle market will have a negative boomerang effect on Igbo traders in the North and across Nigeria. We have carefully observed that the ‘vacate the cattle market’ ultimatum issued by the governor has greatly increased the already tense socio-political atmosphere in the country. The spokesperson for the Northern traders’ community, Buba Abdullahi, on Thursday at a press conference also expressed their anger over the government’s position, saying it was a subtle directive to evict them from the state.

Source: Punch November 03, 2023 14:24 UTC