There are, according to the Igbo traditions of markets, four named markets located at different sections of Nibo town. The origin of market days in Igbo land can be traced to the reign of a man called Eze Nrijiofor I within 1300-1390 AD. According to Igbo history, Eze Nrijiofor was visited by four strangers one day at his palace. As they visited, these four strangers who were also regarded as wise men behaved as if they were deaf and dumb so they did not disclose to anyone what their mission was. However, history had it that Adama who happened to be one of the king’s servant ushered them into the guest apartment. When Eze Nrijiofor went to see them in their apartment that night, they did not communicate with him, neither did they receive his gift of kolanut.
In his wisdom, Eze Nrijiofor instructed his soothsayer to monitor the activity of the strangers and this he did by sending a rat to disturb them while asleep. The rat had to disturb the four baskets each of them were carrying. When he nibbled the first basket which belonged to Eke,Oye woke up and called the owner of the basket (Eke) by name and told him to wake up and see what was happening to his basket. The rat repeated the same exercise on all other baskets and through this, the strangers revealed their names without knowing. Their names were Eke, Oye, Afo and Nkwo. The next morning, Eze Nrijiofor proceeded to see the strangers who were initially referred to as ‘Ndibialaijeekwuokwu’ whichcan be translated as (dumb visitors).
As Adama broke the kolanut for the morning ritual, Eze Nrijiofor I called each of the strangers by name and they were astonished. Immediately, they requested for water to wash their hands and faces as well as request for kolanut. After the morning ritual exercise, these strangers gave the king four earthen pots and directed him to keep them in front of the shrine outside the palace. They informed the king that the pots were sent down by Chukwu (God Almighty) and his people must observe the names as market days. These pots were named after the strangers as well as the market days.