Posted by Thenationonlineng.com on
It was an ugly incident yesterday at the Commission of Enquiry set up by the Anambra State Governor, Mr. Peter Obi, to look into the lingering crises rocking Electronic Dealers Association Market, Onitsha.
It was an ugly incident yesterday at the Commission of Enquiry set up by the Anambra State Governor, Mr. Peter Obi, to look into the lingering crises rocking Electronic Dealers Association Market, Onitsha.
The chairman of the five-man Commission, retired Justice J.C.O Emekwue, walked out journalists covering proceedings at the Commission, branding them good-for-nothing reporters.
Already, most of the traders of the market rose up against the intimidation and harassment of the Commission's chairman on the lawyers handling their different cases at the sittings.
The traders, some of who were not allowed inside the chambers by the chairman, told The Nation that they had lost faith in the chairman, and not the other four members, who according to them, Emekwue does not allow to make inputs during proceedings.
However, they appealed to Governor, Obi, to remove the chairman, as according to them he has already taken sides.
According to one of them who pleaded anonymity, "from the way things are going, it is obvious that the man is acting on a written script and that is why he does not even listen to some of the lawyers representing other interest groups."
Meanwhile, the Commission chairman had on Monday docked The Nation reporter for reporting the proceedings in its last Saturday Edition of the paper, which according to the chairman was contrary to what transpired during the sitting the previous day.
Emekwue insisted that no witness testified that the former President of the Market Association, Mr. Dominic Mba was forced out of office.
But on Monday, another witness, Chief Emmanuel Ezeigwe vindicated The Nation reporter, when he told the Emekwue Commission that Mba was forced out of office and did not render any account to the current executive of the market led by Joseph Udeh.
Emekwue did not only stop at docking the reporter, but also threatened to get him sacked from his job, adding that he was going to report to the publisher of the organization and the board.
Before proceedings commenced yesterday, Emekwue had called security men to arrest reporters who thronged the Chief Judge's chambers to cover proceedings, unfortunately for him, before the security men arrived, the reporters had gone out of the chambers.