By Godwin Abedican

Arua

Vendors in Arua main market are threatening to go on strike with some demanding to be relocated from the main market until the management messes in the market are resolved.

The vendors accuse the market master for failing to manage the market well. Ever since vendors reoccupied the 34.9 Billion facility constructed under the Market and Agricultural trade Improvement program (MARIP II) project by Joadah Consult limited, there have been a lot of irregularities cited with the latest being the failure by the market master to ensure stable electricity supply to the market. For close to two weeks, the market has been operating in darkness after power supply to the market was allegedly cut off by WENRECo over accumulated power bills.

Zaifa Rehima, a produce dealer in the market says due to the lack of power they are working at loses “We can’t make sale because our customers can’t even see you and cannot reach where you are. We have better sales when there is power and so when we don’t have power we cannot sell,” Zaifa bitterly said

According to Mawa Iddi, a butcher in the market, they are so much affected because since the power challenges began they have lost a lot of meat that get spoiled as their refrigerators cannot be powered “We are suffering a lot trying to take care of that. We lose around 160,000 especially when the offal’s get spoilt,” Iddi explained.

During a visit to the market, a buyer who chose to speak on anonymity on Monday 6^th may 20204 at around midday had carried her own torch to the market to buy fish after she previously bought rotten fish due to darkness in the market.

According to Dada nelson chairperson general Arua main market the traders in the market have lost patience and as the leadership of the traders they do not have any way to restrain them from any action they will choose to take “Even my office is not working well because we are in darkness. When you go to the basement where the fish mongers are, it is worst because you cannot even see the person coming. How can we really do our businesses in darkness? We are suffering. We feel embarrassed,” he said.

Efforts made to speak to the market master who is directly in charge of remitting the payments to the power supplies couldn’t bear fruit since the person in office by press time was told not to give any response to the media though he said off record that the matter was being handled and within a period of 2 days, the power issue would be sorted.

COVER PHOTO: A fish celler uses torch as a customer bargains to buy fish By Godwin Abedican