Suspected thugs disrupt TraderMoni scheme in Ogun

•Council chair claims organisers exchanging PVCS for cash

SUSPECTED thugs yesterday disrupted proceedings at the launch of the Federal Government’s Enterprise and Empowerment Programme (GEEP), also known as TraderMoni, in Abeokuta, the Ogun State capital.

The scheme was put in place by government to assist petty traders with N10,000 soft loans. All was set for the event at the popular Lafenwa Food Market when the invaders stormed the venue to disperse the beneficiaries who were waiting for the organisers to hand over their largesse to them.

Canopies had been erected for the occasion and the traders already seated when the thugs, suspected to be sponsored by one of the major political opposition parties, stormed the market and drove some people away. The hoodlums, said to be about 40, whisked the two market leaders away before returning them to their stalls later. An eyewitness told The

Guardian that organisers of the programme had arrived the market and were documenting the traders’ bio-data and their perma- nent voter cards (PVCS) when the incident occurred.

Some of the affected traders claimed that the Chairman of Abeokuta North West Local Council Development Area (LCDA), Monsuru Shorunke, led the invaders. Contacted, Shorunke confirmed that he led some “boys” to the market on the order of Governor Ibikunle Amosun when news filtered in that some politicians “were giving the traders money in exchange of their PVCS.”

He continued: “I was in front of the governor when we heard that some people came to Lafenwa Market and were collecting PVCS from the traders with their names and numbers.

“And the governor said we should go and find out. It was Governor Amosun that sent us. So, I collected Iyaloja’s phone number from Hon. Akintona. We took Iyaloja to the governor’s house along with the Babaloja of Lafenwa.

“We believe it was wrong for them to come and collect people’s PVCS with numbers before election day. That was what they came to do at Lafenwa.”