…Some spaces for demolished shops now serve as car parks, refuse dump site
By Chimaobi Nwaiwu
FEW months ago, precisely on March 1, 2026, the Anambra State Government moved in with bulldozers to demolish some shops at the popular Onitsha Main Market.
The government claimed the shops were illegal, that they were not authorised to be erected in those places. But the occupying traders countered the position, insisting that they have receipts and allocation papers given to them after buying the shops from the government through the Onitsha North Local Government Council.
Their arguments did not change anything as the shops were reduced to rubbles. Over ten thousand shops were said to have been pulled down, with the fate of the owners now hanging in the balance.
