Traders in Ogbogwu Market, Bridge Head, Onitsha, took to the streets to protest alleged executive recklessness being perpetrated by their caretaker Chairman, Chukwuleta Ndubisi, calling on Governor Charles Soludo of Anambra State to intervene.

The traders, who carried placards bearing different inscriptions, read: “Chukwuleta Ndubisi, a leadership failure in Ogbogwu Market;” “Chukwuleta told us that he is accountable only to SPAD, Chief of Staff, and Perm Sec., not to the traders.”

“Executive recklessness in Ogbogwu Market;” “Soludo is a professor but appoints an illiterate to lead Ogbogwu Market;” “All APGA members in Ogbogwu are angry with Chukwuleta;” “Soludo, remove Chukwuleta now so that APGA can win votes among traders.”

In his speech during the march, spokesperson for the protesters, Ifejiofor Chibueze, said, “When NAFDAC invaded our market in February 2025, we told our chairman what he should do so that we come out of the woods, but he refused and preferred that we remain in the problem.

“In the course of the invasion, NAFDAC sent a document for our executive to sign. We told the chairman that we should go through the documents before signing, but he refused.

“We told him to send the document to our lawyer for professional scrutiny to know whether it is what we should sign, but he refused. I saw the sinister thing he was planning, so I decided to resign.

“NAFDAC invaded Ogbogwu on February 9, 2025. We resumed trading fully in July. The chairman called traders and said we should pay the arrears of security levies for those months.

“We told him that security was not in the market during the period of inversion, as NAFDAC chased our security men away and invaded the market with police, DSS, and others. But he insisted that we must pay.

“Our transformer got spoilt in January 2025, and there was no power supply in the market for months. Again, he called a meeting of traders and told us to pay the arrears of electricity bills we did not consume. Chukwuleta does not listen to traders in the market – he listens to the Chief of Staff to the governor, Special Adviser to the governor on Markets and the Permanent Secretary in the state Ministry of Commerce, Trade and Industry, and sometimes, he uses them against traders. This is why we formed this group, ‘Justice for Ogbogwu.’

Ifejiofor said that sometimes, the chairman would wake up in the morning and lock up the shops of traders and accuse them of one wrongdoing or the other.

“Just yesterday, the chairman announced on our platform that he cut off cables and wires connecting the power supply to parts of the market, and he claimed that the traders did not pay electricity bills; yet, he refused to account for how he spent the money we contributed before now.

“Again, the caretaker committee stays for 3 to 6 months in power, not 4 years. When Chukwuleta was appointed, he promised to organise an election in the market within three months, but here we are.

“In the past, when the government appointed other people into caretaker positions, Chukwuleta was always the person agitating against it. Today, he is appointed caretaker chairman, he has refused to go, and has refused to organise a proper election.”

He said that before Chukwuleta assumed office, pharmaceutical companies that supply drugs to traders in the market used to pay N360,000 to the market union, but when Chukwuleta came, he “mischievously” increased the levy on the companies to N600,000 per truck load of supply, forcing the companies to change their minds on supplying their products directly to the market.

He added, “Just last week, we saw on social media where our chairman donated a whopping five million naira (N5m) for Soludo’s campaign on behalf of our union without notifying traders who own the money.

“Now, when you confront him with all these mischiefs, he would petition NAFDAC that you deal in fake drugs; he would petition the police and DSS that you cause breach of public peace.”

Speaking during the protest march, a member of the market caretaker committee, and a trader in the market, Benjamin Ikebata (Senator), said that 6 executive members among Chukwuleta’s caretaker committee resigned because of the chairman’s misendeavours and executive excesses.

He said, “The chairman handles traders as if he handles his houseboys; and the affairs of the market as if he handles the affairs of his household. When NAFDAC invaded our market, the chairman could not do anything. When traders in the market protested against NAFDAC’s invasion, the chairman called the traders touts and said they dealt in fake drugs. What kind of chairman is that?

“The greatest worry of the traders is that Soludo is not interested in addressing the genuine concerns of traders in our market. Our strongest concern is that the Special Adviser to the Governor on Markets, Everistus Uba, is not interested in listening to any trader.

He listens to the chairman alone, who is his brother. November 8, 2025, is around the corner. I see Soludo losing the votes of traders in this market because of Chukwuleta. From the way he behaves, the chairman cannot convince 10 traders to cast their votes for APGA.”

Also speaking, Comrade Sunday Ezeigwe, who introduced himself as a Concerned Citizen of Ogbogwu, said that Chukwuleta is not competent to lead the market as chairman.

He said, “When NAFDAC invaded our market, we called on him to go on air to expose what was happening, but he refused. We called on him to contact a good lawyer to defend us against NAFDAC, but he still refused. That was when we realised that he was lacking in the courage, learning and experience to lead a market like Ogbogwu.

“On his educational background, we learnt that the chairman dropped out in primary 4, and could not proceed any further. So, he has a lot of lapses that make him incompetent to lead the market as chairman.

“You recall that Soludo banned the collection of levies from petty traders? Chukwuleta collects N4,000 monthly from 200 widows hawking cooked food in Ogbogwu Market. He designed aprons and sold them to each of the 400 barrow punchers in the market at the sum of N3,500. He also ordered the barrow punchers’ union to remit N2m annually to him, until the barrow punchers raised an alarm.”