Leaders of Imo State have called on President Muhammadu Buhari to institute a commission of inquiry into the killing of four traders by security operatives during the demolition of the popular Ekeukwu Market in Owerri on Friday, Punch has reported.
Spokesman for the group lamented the sad killing of a ten-year-old boy, Somtochukwu Igboanusi, of No 9 Oguamanam Street, Owerri, by security operatives deployed to enforce the demolition of the market.
Addressing newsmen, Chief Sam Obaze, the immediate past Chairman of Nigeria Electricity Regulatory Commission, Mr. Sam Amadi, and the Senatorial Candidate of the All Progressives Candidate for Owerri Senatorial District in the 2015 general elections, Mr. Uche Onyeguacha and others called on the members of the Imo State House of Assembly to commence impeachment proceedings against Governor Rochas Okorocha under whose directive the market was demolished.
He said that Okorocha had displayed incompetence in the area of governance and should therefore resign his exalted position as governor of the state. Obaze alleged that Okorocha issued a directive to demolish the market in violation of the orders of the Imo State High Court which restrained the government from carrying out the intent to demolish the market.
The Imo leaders displayed the court orders dated September 9, 2016, in which Justice SI Opara of the Owerri High Court restrained the the government from demolishing or destroying the market pending the determination of suit between representatives of the traders and the state government.
He said that it was inconceivable to deploy the military to enforce a market demolition which was expected to be characterised by civil protest. He blamed the police and the military for their "gross indiscretion" in the alleged murder of the four traders during the demolition on Friday.
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