Petit traders, most of them foodstuff retailers, in Buea are contesting a move by Mayor David Mafany Namange to relocate them from the Great Soppo Market, popularly called OIC, to the Buea central market.
The Great Soppo Market vendors say the Central Market, located over four kilometers away, is too far for most of them and the Mayor’s relocation order is too sudden.
Some of them also say there isn’t enough space at the Central Market, where 72 newly constructed open shades and 36 closed shops were recently inaugurated.
“We feel very sad because we manage our lives here and if we are removed from here we don’t know anywhere else to go to because that Bwitingi is too far from us,” a foodstuff retailer told Dash Radio in an interview.
The Buea Municipal Police descended on the Great Soppo market on Wednesday, July 24, displacing all traders who had no stalls or shops.This followed a communique signed by the Mayor on July 23, asking all “traders and vendors without shops” at the Market to relocate to the central market.
The Mayor’s order came one week after a ghastly car accident killed two roadside traders and injured several roadside vendors at the Great Soppo Market.
While the Buea Council argues that there is need to stem disorder at the market, traders think the move must be implemented in all other markets in the city, and not only at the Great Soppo Market.
They also want the Mayor to give them more time as a sudden relocation could cause bankruptcy for some business persons who already have a customer base at the present market site.
A trader fumed over the Mayor’s decision: “Why can’t they relocate us well? Why only at this time? It’s not right. The Mayor did not act well. Do they want to kill us? How are we going to send our children to school? There are internally displaced persons among us who are struggling to make ends meet. What will they do now?”
The Great Soppo Market, a popular roadside market, has been a subject of discussion since last week’s accident, with make observers saying it was time the Buea Council stopped all roadside trading, which has been the cause of traffic jams.
But the current approach used by the Council appears to have a negative toll on the population.
