The business community in Gaidam local government area of Yobe state has pleaded with the state government and security agencies to consider the re-opening of Gaidam central market for commercial activities to thrive.
Members of the community made the appeal through the Chairman of United Traders Association of Nigeria, Gaidam branch, Abba Abdulrasheed, during an interview with DAILY POST correspondent on Friday on the fate of the market.
The Chairman stated that the market has been closed for 13 weeks now, and that the closure which is in response to Boko Haram activities, is affecting the entire Gaidam community and traders who have lost their means of livelihood.
“We appeal to Yobe State Governor Ibrahim Gaidam and other stakeholders to consider the immediate opening of the Geidam Central Market in order to alleviate our sufferings, we’re suffering from the closure of the market,” he appealed.
He further explained that the market is one of the largest and viable commercial hubs in the North-East region attracting people from the neighbouring countries of Niger, Chad and Cameroon.
The Chairman of the Traders Association also said that they have made several efforts to get the market opened “we have almost exhausted all avenues of ensuring that the market is opened, but they kept telling us that they could not open it due to security reasons and that the Boko Haram insurgents are using the market days to launch an attack on the Town”.
Abdulrasheed disclosed that they have embarked on special prayers to seek divine intervention to the prevailing security challenges in the area, saying that leaving the traders redundant will lead to increase in the poverty in the area thereby creating another nuisance in the society.
It would be recalled that incessant attacks from Boko Haram terrorists on the commercial town had forced the authorities in the state to shut down the market to avert further loss of lives and property.