Oil Mill: Port Harcourt’s risky mid-week market

Oil Mill, a Port-Harcourt mid-week market located at Rumuchorlu Community in Obio Akpor Local Government Area of Rivers State has continued to constitute nuisance to free flow of traffic along the Aba/Port-Harcourt Road. The location of the market has also put the lives of traders at the market at risk. The weekly market, which holds […]

Oil Mill, a Port-Harcourt mid-week market located at Rumuchorlu Community in Obio Akpor Local Government Area of Rivers State has continued to constitute nuisance to free flow of traffic along the Aba/Port-Harcourt Road. The location of the market has also put the lives of traders at the market at risk.
The weekly market, which holds every Wednesday, draws traders from different parts of Rivers State. Traders from Aba, Onitsha, Owerri, Akwa Ibom and Umuahia also visit the market to buy and sell. The chaotic traffic gridlock the market causes every Wednesday along the Aba/Port-Harcourt Road gives traffic wardens sleepless night.
On Oil Mill Market days, human traffic also creates nuisance along the flyover end of the popular Eleme Road where most of the traders display their goods.
Traders of different categories; boys, girls, women, men, the young and old, struggle to display their wares at every available space along the road. Lorry loads of men and women coming from Aba and other parts of the state also beat traffic to discharge their passengers.
Trucks of different kinds and ‘Molue’ drivers make brisk business as such vehicles are used to convey   traders to the market. These trucks are usually over-stretched and those that cannot find seats are made to hang at the tail of the trucks.
As soon as the vehicles make a final stop at the bus stop, middle-age youths converge and struggle to off load goods stockpiled in the vehicles. In most cases, fights are common occurrences as they struggle to get hold of particular goods. A careless trader stands the risk of losing his or her wares as some of the goods are stolen and diverted to unknown destination.
 “Stop! stop!, here is the final bus stop. Madam, let me carry your goods. Please, I will carry it carefully,” is what they usually tell traders on the arrival of a particular vehicle.
Goods such as clothing, food stuff, bags, household items and fruits are displayed very close to the road. The traders battle to move their goods out of the way each time a particularly big vehicle approaches.
Another section of the market leads to East-West Road.  Traders in this section display food items like tomatoes, pepper, rice, garri, beans and vegetables. The other part of the market, adjacent to the flyover, comprises of lock up stores.
Oil Mill Market harbours different categories of people – the good, the bad and the ugly. There are genuine traders who are in the market to eke out a living. There are also those who go to the market to rob and steal. Pick pockets fall within this group.
“There are unreported cases of robbery and petty stealing at the market. There was this particular lady who was robbed in the market by some youths. The lady had closed for the day and was about leaving when two boys accosted her and collected her bag containing a sum of N30,000. The lady cried and cried but nobody came to her rescue,” said Peter Ossai, a trader at the market.
He said the market has serious security challenges which put the lives of traders at risk every Wednesday, adding that security challenges at the market heightens at dawn when the traders are getting set to go home. He called on the authorities to beef up security in the market.
Celestine Obevo sells second hand clothes in the market. She was once robbed at the market.
“I have finished selling my wares and was getting ready to go. At the end of the flyover I saw two boys coming towards my direction. I did not suspect any fowl play until they accosted me and collected my handbag.  All the money I made that day was taken by these criminals. I lost N25,000 to them.”
Despite the risk of robbery attack and the danger motorists constitute to the traders, the market still records high volume of human traffic. No day passes without one incident or the other being recorded in the market.
Last year, a truck rammed into traders who displayed their wares along the road. Scores of lives were lost while several persons sustained injuries.  In a rather more pathetic incident, a teenage boy was crushed to death by a truck. The boy, who was hawking Zobo drink, was involved in the accident when he tried to cross to the other side of the road, probably to sell his drink.
The market is also without one form of drama or another. Recently, a ball of watermelon wrapped in a carton caused a big stir in the market. A passer-by raised alarm over the content which he suspected to be an improvised explosive device.  Hundreds of visitors at the market took to their heel only to realise later that the content was watermelon.
Oil Mill Market, according to research carried out by the Paramount ruler of Rumuchorlu Community, Eze B.A. Worlu, came into existence soon after the Nigerian Civil War.
 Historically, the present day Oil Mill Market sprang up as Nnempi market whose major commodity was cassava, both in tuber and fermented forms, because of the abundance of water from a small river called  ‘mini chidi River’. People from far and near came to Nnempi market to buy and sell cassava.
The construction of Aba/Port-Harcourt highway prompted the quick expansion of the market.   Between 1971 and 1977, the ‘Ikwu Chorlu family’, the original owners of the market, expanded the market which generated a lot of revenue to the community.
The Nnempi market later metamorphosed into the present day Oil Mill Market. The market became so popular that the then Military Administrator of the state, Lt. Col. Dauda Musa Komo, in the early 1990’s expanded the market to its present size. The expansion of the market did not go down well with the original land owners who had a long drawn litigation against the management committee of the market. The matter was later resolved and the management committee was saddled with the responsibility of collecting revenue from the market.
The management committee of the market is always up in arms with the traders as they engage jobless youths to harass and intimidate traders over collection of revenue.
According to Worgu, “The RTC leadership which controls the market became power drunk and very corrupt. They use armed youths to harass and intimidate traders.”
Efforts made by previous administrations in the state to relocate the market were rebuffed by desperate traders who would come every Wednesday to buy and sell.  Some of the traders who spoke with our reporter said the market has become a melting pot where people from different parts of the world meet every Wednesday.
“The market is very important because of its strategic location. People come all the way from Aba and Owerri to sell and buy goods in the market,” said a trader who gave his name as Paul.