Director-General of the Revive Africa Initiative, Ugagaoghene Ogheneyole has slammed government over the petrol tanker inferno that razed the Ochanja market which destroyed over 40 buildings and 500 shops in Onitsha yesterday.



In a statement published on social media, the activist fingered the government of wrongdoing, tagging it as a betrayal of public trust.



Ugagaoghene wrote:



“THE ONITSHA INFERNO, THE REVENUE GENERATED BY GOVERNEMENT DAILY FROM THOSE MARKETS, AND THE BETRAYAL OF PUBLIC TRUST; MY TAKE

“If you have visited any market in Onitsha before, you will agree with me that both sellers and buyers, transporters and roadside traders pay heavy taxes in terms of revenues and levies on daily basis.

“On the door of every trader shop in onitsha you see variety of revenue and levy receipts fumed to their doors, mist of these levies are paid on daily basis.

“When you buy a commodity from Onitsha market, as the buyer, you have more that five spots where you have to pay #50 or #100 before you leave the market, they do not even mind how much you bought the commodity.

“When you get to the motor parks, you see another set of persons demanding land levy from you for dropping your load on th ground.

“Same goes with the experiences of both shop owners, owners and transporters.

“The very essence of paying taxes and levies is to enable Government provide basic amenities that makes life easier, such as security, healthcare, emergency rescue services such as fire service and emergency ambulance, good roads, good waters, public toilets etc for the masses.

“One would expect that with the huge amount being paid to government through their proxies in form of tax, revenue and levies that the government would in turn prioritize, the lives, business, properties, health and otherwise of the masses paying the levies.

“The fire incident at onitsha only reviewed how government have betrayed public trust of the masses, traders pays the highest of all taxes and levies. FOR A market as big as Ochanja, there was no standby well equipped fire station, even the fire tank that finally arrived was an old ornidary water tank with the inscription anambra satiate fire service what a shame.

“And up till 3am this morning people's shops, goods, valued properties and lives were still burning at Ochanja upper Iweka.

“This situation is the same all over Nigeria, in all our markets, highways, public places etc. The only places you see standby fire fighting trucks are in the government house, because politicians value their lives more than that of others.

“The Anambra state Government should take responsibility for those losses, the federal government should too.

“Governments at all levels must hence forth start correcting these abnormalies or the masses will begging to question the taxes we pay.

“This is a pure case of Government's betrayal of public trust.

“In Nigeria, the masses has been left to suffer on their own, and the effects of bad governance is over bearing on us all.

Source: https://focusnaija.com.ng/2019/10/17/onitsha-inferno-revive-africa-slams-government-for-betrayal-of-public-trust/

I thought "owomida" only happens in the West, una no do well for Onitsha be that o. Haba!