Fruit Garden Market: RSG Assures Transparency In Shop Allocation

The Rivers State Government has commenced verification of genuine shop owners of the Ogbunabali Fruit Garden Market in Port Harcourt City Local Government Area, with a promise to ensure transparency in the allocation of shops to deserving applicants.
The Commissioner for Special Duties, Dr. Thomas Barriere, who gave the assurance in an interview with newsmen during the exercise, last weekend in Port Harcourt, said the verification, which ends, tomorrow, would lead to the identification of genuine shop owners with a view to allocating their shops to them.
The commissioner, who is the chairman of the Market Allocation Committee, explained that the verification exercise would enable the committee to identify shop owners who were compensated during the recent fire incident in the market, those whose shops were not affected by the fire as well as prospective shop owners.
He, however, regretted that some of the traders came with forged documents, while some who claimed to have purchased their shops from the original owners, could not produce any documents to substantiate their claims.
Speaking, the Commissioner for Commerce and Industry, Mrs Ifeyinwa Nwankpa, denied allegation of bias in the verification exercise.
Nwankpa said no genuine shop owner would be short-changed in the allocation exercise, adding that the verification was being carried out in the market with a view to ensuring that everyone was involved.
“It is an open process, no bias, it is transparent”, the commissioner explained, stating that the government wants to be fair to everybody as far as the exercise was concerned.
Also speaking, Secretary of the committee, who is also the Permanent Secretary, Rivers State Ministry of Information and Communications, Mrs. Ibiwari Clapton-Ogolo, said that the exercise was to isolate the documents of original owners compensated during the fire incident and those not compensated.
The permanent secretary, who described the verification exercise as fair and transparent, assured that those with genuine documents would be reassigned shops at the end of the exercise, just as she advised the traders to be patient as the committee was determined to attend to everyone.