Traders, drivers vow to end Monday sit-at-home in South-East

The leadership of Anambra State Amalgamated Traders Association and the executive members of Urban Drivers Welfare Association of Anambra State, have vowed to end the Monday sit-at-home order across the South-East region.

Both groups resolved to collaborate with one another to end the exercise when the President General, ASMATA, Chief Humphrey Anuna, and the executive members of UDWAAS, led by its President, Prince Moses Nwabueze, met on Monday, at the Traders’ Secretariat in Onitsha.

Speaking to journalists after their meeting, Nwabueze said drivers and traders, as critical stakeholders, have vowed to end the exercise, not just in Anambra, but across the South-East region.

Nwabueze said, “The adverse effect of the sit-at-home on the people of Anambra and the entire South-East, especially as it concerns trading activities and logistics, has become worrisome. And as drivers, we have realised we are critical stakeholders in ending the exercise.

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“Therefore, we have advised that drivers and traders should resume their normal business activities and we assure residents of the availability of transportation to convey them to their business places every Monday. When buses are available, people will start coming out.

“There is a need for the drivers to dissociate themselves from the non-existent Monday sit-at-home because such action is negatively affecting the economic activities of the region with drivers in the state at the receiving end. We are equally ready to always partner ASMATA in ending this inglorious exercise.”

On his part, the ASMATA President, Humphrey Anuna, said Anambra State, as the business hub of the nation, cannot afford to lose such status by resorting to non-existent sit-at- home exercise every Monday, knowing fully well the attendant economic instability it poses to the state.

Anuna vows to adopt any legal means within his reach to ensure an end to the sit-at-home even as he pointed out that his commitment to the welfare of Anambra State traders remains uncompromised.

“We will not relent in ensuring a peaceful atmosphere for the traders and to bring back investors who for now have diverted to neighbouring states for their business transactions due to fear of uncertainty in the state and South-East zone.

“Both traders and drivers are critical stakeholders and they need each other to make this possible and we assure every stakeholder of unalloyed support.”