The leadership of Imo State Amalgamated Market and Traders Association(ISAMATA) has dismissed the allegations of the collection of illegal fees for data capturing of traders.
Briefing journalists in his office in Owerri on Tuesday in reaction to allegations by some traders in a phoning program in an Owerri based radio station, the Secretary of ISAMATA, Sir. Don Chris described these allegations as completely false and untrue.
He said that data capturing of traders in the state was the initiative of the State House of Assembly meant to get records of traders in the markets within the city because of insecurity in the state.
The secretary said considering the importance of the idea, ISAMATA with the advice of the consultant decided to go into the project for the good of market traders.
He said that the fees agreed upon with heads of markets in the state during their meeting were N3,000 for lock-up shops while N1,000 is for open shades which have not yet taken off.
He dismissed the rumours making the rounds that the leadership of ISAMATA is illegally collecting between N3,000 and N6,000.
Chris pointed out that ISAMATA because of the interest of traders which they stand to protect, had rejected the initial amount of N5,000 by the consultant and brought it down to N3,000.
He said: “beside the N3,000 for each trader for lock-up shops and N1,000 for open shades, the association has not added or collected any other fees as alleged by some traders in the state”.
The association’s scribe explained some of the benefits of the exercise of data capturing including enabling easy access to information about traders in the state and knowing the number of traders in the state.
Describing data capturing as a good development for Imo traders, the secretary said those behind the allegations are haters of the association and those who have refused to know the truth.
He advised them to always find the truth before alleging, adding that the association would not engage in any act to reap off traders.
However, the traders who called in the radio programme had called on the state government to dissolve the current leadership of the association for the interest of the state.
A trader at Naze Internal cluster market who identified himself as ‘Legend’ accused the association of collecting a certain amount of illegal money from the traders.
He accused the association of collecting the illegal sums of N1,200, N2,000 and N8,000 from the traders without reason.
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ISAMATA dismisses allegations of collection of illegal fees for data capturing in Imo
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