Traders at the New Motorcycle Spare Parts Market, popularly known as Nkwo Nnewi, on Monday reopened for business, complying with Gov. Chukwuma Soludo’s directive aimed at ending the longstanding Monday sit-at-home order.
Earlier, during a visit to the market, Soludo, through his Special Adviser on Trade and Markets, Chief Evarist Uba, had shut down the market, faulting traders for defying government instructions to operate on Mondays. Uba had also warned that if traders failed to resume Monday business after one week, the ban would be extended.
The ban was lifted on Monday following a visit by the chairman of Nnewi North Local Government Area, Mr. Echezona Anazodo, who observed widespread compliance among the traders.
“I am happy to see that traders have complied with the order to resume business,” Anazodo said. “I want to believe that if there had been even half of this turnout last week, the market would not have been shut down.
But now that most of you have complied, we will go round the market and seal the shops of traders who failed to open. We don’t want a situation where the entire market would be shut down just because of a few traders; instead, those traders should bear the consequences themselves.”
The development marks a significant step toward restoring normal commercial activities at Nkwo Nnewi, a key trading hub in the region.
