It was reported at the Central Body’s meeting that some traders in Oye Igboeze in Iheaka Community tried to chase out traders who came from Kogi in Benue State and from other places. This was because those traders used to sell goods at a cheaper rate more than those traders from Iheaka community. Then on one market day, those traders from Kogi, Benue State, came to (Oye Igboeze) modern market with different foodstuffs. On arrival to Iheaka, those traders from Iheaka changed the price of loading and off loading of goods from the normal N20 price to N50 per bag of grain. These traders from Kogi, Benue State, refused to pay, and instead elected to carry their goods back to Kogi State. As they tried to reverse their vehicles some women who were there raised an alarm with usual D&G women slogan in the area: “Onye Okoru na Okoroo” – implying: “If you deliberately become a victim of what you know to be a crime, then you will be made to pay the price.”Immediately, many women gathered and persuaded those Kogi traders not to go. Their intervention effected the reversal of the off-loading price to N20 per bag of grain. The women did not stop there; they went round the market to check those who collected illegal levies and stopped all of them. People who patronize our market jubilated because everything had been normalized in the community People could not have taken such action if not because of the women empowerment programme of DEC through its Democracy and Governance programme. Even the parish priest of the community praised the women for the actions they took to curb the excesses of the local traders during one of his Sunday sermons. Since that incident, the illegal activities of the so-called market masters in the community have been brought under control.
Other testimonies by the D&G women in other communities as it concerns the problem associated with teenage pregnancy and abortion practices among others were documented.
