Anambra State Government has declared the activities of a group of people using the name, Importers Association of Nigeria, IMAN, to defraud transporters and traders, illegal.
It has, therefore, given marching order to transporters and traders not to pay or deal with the group.
To this end, government has set up a joint task force led by the Commissioners for Transport, Honourable Afam Mbanefo and Trade and Commerce, Honourable Uchenna Okafor, to move round all the markets and offloading points, as directed by Governor Willie Obiano, and mobilize transporters and traders with a view to addressing the matter.
Measures were also put in place to track down and arrest members of the group.
During their awareness tours, the joint task force led by Commissioners for Transport, Honourable Afam Mbanefo and his Trade and Commerce counterpart, Honourable Uchenna Okafor, visited all the offloading spots and some markets in the State where it was noted that syndicate has been terrorizing transporters and traders in the state .
It was gathered that the Syndicate, for some weeks now, have been visiting all the container offloading Units, and markets demanding various amounts of money from transporters and traders before they could offload and sell their commodities.
According to the Chairman of New Tyres Spare Parts Association, Nkpor, the group came and told the traders that they have authority papers, and must check all the goods being offloaded, and that they also demanded various sums of money ranging from 400,000 or 500,000 naira among other demands, before they could offload their goods.
According to the market leader, they refused to pay, and the group started seizing their containers, threatening that they were coming back with soldiers, Police, and others security agents to deal with them, which was why they notified the state government.
He added that he group visited New and Old Tyres Markets, Nkpor, and other markets, seizing yet to be offloaded containers belonging to the traders .
Addressing the transporters, Commissioners Mbanefo and Okafor advised them not to pay or have any dealing with the group, as directed by the State Government.
The market leaders were equally advised to sensitize traders in the state on the issue, and to always contact government and security agencies, whenever the group disturbs them, notifying that government has put measures in place to apprehend the fraudsters.
