Residents of Port Harcourt have been expressing strong displeasure over the closure last Friday of the Port Harcourt Mall operated by Spar Supermarket, through a court order that stopped it from going on with its Black Friday programme.
But Rivers State Government, which obtained the court order to close the supermarket said the mall was shut for the Black Friday programme because its management failed to respond to the government’s demand that it should show evidence that it would contain the rush that could attend the Black Friday clearance sales.
Thousands of shoppers that visited the mall last Friday were shocked to find the place under lock and key with a magistrate court order on its closure pasted on the gates.
As the closure evoked outrage in town, many residents felt it was politically motivated. Some others insinuated that the shutting down of Spar was done to create market for Hypercity and Shoprite, two new shopping malls in Port Harcourt rumoured to hold substantial interests for a top political office holder in Rivers State.
Reacting to the outrage, the commissioner for Information and Communications, Chief Chris Finebone, said the closure was purely in the public interest as according to him, government could not sit back and allow another stampede to occur in the city after the Polo Field Stampede that took scores of lives.
Finebone said in a statement on the matter: “Against the background of politically motivated spins, reverse spins and outright distortions being created over a rather straightforward matter, it has become pertinent to state exactly what transpired and the present position of things with regard to the court Order on Spar Supermarket, occupier of Port Harcourt Mall, from carrying out the Black Friday sales from 18th to 27th November, 2022 until it shows that safety and environmental measures are put in place.
“Following past incidents of environmental health and safety nature concerning places of crowd gathering particularly, the recent sad incident at Port Harcourt Polo Club grounds where a religious group held a gathering and the resultant fatalities that happened due to poor crowd management, the Rivers State Government committed to acting proactively going forward. This was the reason why the government decided to engage with the management of Spar to ascertain that necessary environmental, health and safety concerns were addressed by the company before this year’s Black Friday sales which is likely to attract large crowd.
“With the Black Friday sales a few days away, the Rivers State Ministry of Environment dispatched a letter to the company requesting to allow the Ministry officials led by the Honourable Commissioner, Barr. Emenike Eke, to visit and meet with Spar management to ascertain the company’s readiness to manage the envisaged crowd and other issues that the sales might trigger.
“Despite giving clear 48 official hours notice to Spar through the letter, which was duly received and acknowledged, the Supermarket officials were unavailable to receive the team from the Ministry led by the Honourable Commissioner. The team remained in Spar premises for about 20 minutes without any official of the supermarket willing or ready to engage the team.
“Subsequently, the Honourable Commissioner sent another letter stating that Spar should not proceed on commencing the Black Friday Sales without meeting with the Ministry officials to address environmental health and safety issues. This letter was also received by the company but no action taken by them.
“When it became obvious that Spar management was intensifying the advertisement to go ahead with the Black Friday sales without meeting with the Rivers State Government officials to address the issues raised, the government had no other option than to approach the court to stop Spar from proceeding with their planned promotional sales. The court subsequently granted an Order, stopping Spar Supermarket from carrying out Black Friday sales from 18th to 27th November, 2022, until it shows that safety and environmental measures have been put in place to ensure public safety.
“Whereas the Rivers State Government insists that the lives and properties of its people must be protected by every entity in the state, SPAR Supermarket hindered, obstructed and prevented the officers of Ministry of Environment from inspecting safety and environmental measures in its market. Quite sadly, instead of Spar seeking ways to have the issues resolved, Spar continued sending out text messages to the public insisting that the Black Friday sales will go ahead.
“It must be stated that government has taken notice of the eventual remorse shown by the overall boss of Spar Supermarket acknowledging that Spar mismanaged the entire matter.
“Government will encourage Spar to take the part of due process to bring the unfortunate incident to a final closure by doing the right thing in accordance with relevant State laws and regulations.”
Reacting, Ivy Davies-Etokakpan, a Port Harcourt-based media entrepreneur, said the closure of Spar could impact on the economy of the state.
A top politician and member of the opposition All Progressives Congress, Mr. Kingsley Wali, said sarcastically that Spar had become an environmental threat because of the two new shopping malls, which he described as special purpose vehicles for money laundering for some government officials.
Mr. Enefaa Georgewill, the coordinator of Rivers State Civil Society Organisations, wondered if the treatment given to Spar was also extended to Shoprite and Hypercity, two other shopping malls in Port Harcourt and wondered how Chris Finebone would have reacted to this government action when he was the APC spokesperson.
Gimah Bealeema, another resident of Port Harcourt, simply said government’s action was to drive traffic to Hypercity, a new mall in the city. “What a blind and selfish reason!” Bealeema said of Finebone’
s explanation of the closure of Spar. Like others, he said the Rivers State government’s action might have been taken to boost Black Friday sales for the other malls.
Confidence Eke, another citizen said, “It is strange that this sermon on the environment is coming from a government that doesn’t care about noise control, pollution control, traffic management, waste disposal or anything that will improve the wellbeing of the people.”
Fred-Ogu said, “There will always be reasons to do nonsense in Rivers. Was there no Black Friday sales in Hypercity? Was there no reason to be foolishly proactive as they did with Spar? The government should come up with a more rational explanation. Chris Finebone has got a lot of work to do. Defending a draconian administration, takes more than being a propagandist. You need military background too.”
Deedenwii Neele asked, “Where did we get it wrong in Rivers State? Why is our Governor behaving childishly? Rumours have it that because a popular supermarket linked to him would be having its seasonal “Black Friday” experience for her customer, our governor is rumoured to have stopped Spar PH from having its own “Black Friday” experience. How long will this government bring shame and disgrace to Rivers people?”
