Thousands of traders at the various markets in Awka, Anambra State capital, yesterday closed shops and staged protests across the major streets in the capital city over the alleged plan by the Federal Government to transfer Boko Haram prisoners to the prisons in Anambra. During the protest which started in the morning after the Saturday sanitation exercise, the traders of which included market women who carried placards marched through the Arthur Eze Avenue and down to the ever busy Regina Caeli Junction of the Awka to Onitsha Expressway, which was barricaded as they chanted solidarity songs and voiced their rejection of the alleged move by the federal government to move Boko Haram prisoners to Anambra. The traders who were led by the President of Awka Traders Association, Emeka Jude Agumadu, insisted that President Muhammadu Buhari jail the Boko Haram prisoners to the North, where they rightly belong. And as the protesters continued in their action, they created heavy traffic jam that lasted for several hours, before security agents stormed the Regina Caeli junction of the Awka to Onitsha Express Way Expressway, branshing guns and tear gar canisters apparently to frighten the protesters, who remained defiant until their leader directed them to clear from the Expressway and move towards the old Awka to Enugu road (Nnamdi Azikiwe Avenue) where the protest would continue. The protesters displayed anti Buhari placards bearing the inscriptions like, “Buhari, Anambra is not Borno State”, "Bring federal investment to Anambra State not Boko Haram", “We don't want Boko Haram prisoners in Anambra State". The restive traders urged Buhari to realise that their collective wish is to the effect that if he wants to help Anambra State that he( Buhari) should give Anambra ministerial positions, schools and other developmental projects, stressing that they don't want Boko Haram prisoners at all. Agumadu who spoke to the journalists at the Regina Caeli junction of the Awka to Onitsha Expressway, said they used their protest to send signal to Buhari to take the prisoners to another state. Agumadu stated that they have since sent their protest to the governor and that no market was opened for routine trading and other commercial activities throughout the state yesterday. Similar protests which were accompanied with markets closure, also took place in Onitsha, Nnewi and Ekwulobia among others and it started after the environmental sanitation exercise when the traders got to their respective markets to open for the days business, only to be told that all the markets were shut for the protest.
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