The Governor Chukwuma Soludo-led Anambra State government is set to demolish over 1,000 business shops at the Ochanja Market in the commercial city of Onitsha.
The shops were marked when the Commissioner for Commerce and Industry, Dr Obinna Ngonadi, led a joint task force and building professionals to monitor various sections of the market on Friday.
Ngonadi, who presented the governor during the inspection exercise, said that the marked buildings were illegally constructed without government approval.
While addressing journalists, the Commissioner explained that administration of Soludo had the intention to decongest markets by making them inhabitable according to international standards.
He warned owners of illegal structures to quickly remove them or get ready to pay the state government for removing it.
The Chairman, Anambra State Physical Planning Board, Chike Maduekwe, disclosed that the State Materials Testing Laboratory would visit all the markets to test the structural integrity of their buildings so as to find out those to be spared with some amendment and those to be completely demolished.
