We are given four days to quit Oshodi market – Traders speaks.

Traders affected by the demolition of the Owonifari Market in Oshodi have lamented that the Lagos State government gave them only four days to quit the market, making it impossible for some of them to get their goods out in time.

The market had been demolished by officials of the Lagos State Environmental and Special Offences (Enforcement) Unit in the early hours of Wednesday with the traders arriving later to meet their shops demolished and goods destroyed by bulldozers.

Some of the traders told PUNCH Metro that the notice was too short for several of their colleagues that travelled out of Lagos for the Yuletide to do anything about it.

One of the traders, who gave his name as Ike Uzor, said he just returned from his hometown in the South-East after the Yuletide and was shocked to see that his shop and goods were gone. Uzor claimed that he lost 15 flat screens, among other goods.

He said, “The officials started the process on Saturday at about 9pm. They arrested the market chairman and shot teargas canisters at the traders. That was four days ago. So, why are they claiming they gave us two weeks to pack?

“I just returned from the South-East after the Christmas and New Year celebration. We have goods in these shops worth millions of naira. The officials came in the night and destroyed our goods with bulldozers.

“They said they wanted to use the place for a Bus Rapid Transit park. But we have hundreds of shops in this place, and they did not allow us to move our goods. We did not pick anything from the rubble.”

Another trader, Bayo Akande, said, “My father had two shops. I was born and I grew up in this area. There is no harm if the government wants to use the land because it is a public property. But why should they demolish our goods with the shops? This is wickedness. We did not vote for this change.

“I have also been doing business here for about 15 years. I came this morning to meet the place demolished. Where do I start from?”

PUNCH Metro observed that goods were demolished with the buildings with many of the traders lamenting their fate.

The state government, however, insisted that the traders were given adequate notice about the demolition.

It said the relocation of the traders to the newly built Isopakodowo Market in Bolade-Oshodi was in the overall interest of public good, safety and security; especially as the demolished market was within “the notorious loop of Oshodi”.

A statement by the Chief Press Secretary to Governor Akinwumi Ambode, Mr. Habib Aruna, on Thursday quoted the Commissioner for Information and Strategy, Mr. Steve Ayorinde, as saying that the government complied with the law and engaged with the leadership of the market severally before demolishing the market.

Ayorinde spoke during a joint press briefing addressed by the State’s Ministries of Information and Strategy, The Environment, Physical Planning and Urban Development, Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs, and the Office of Civic Engagement.

The government said it constructed an alternative market stall for the traders which can conveniently accommodate over 600 shops and hundreds of kee clamps, and agreed to subsidise payment by giving shops at the new market at a monthly give away price of N5, 000.

Ayorinde said it was important for people to note that the issue of the market had been on for nothing less than ten years, adding that government had been engaging the leadership of the market to make them realise that it could no longer continue in the manner in which the market was being used.

He added that goods were not destroyed in the demolition exercise, adding that such a claim was far from the truth.

He said, “The intention of government certainly was not to destroy any goods and we did not destroy any goods because we believe that a good number of the traders, if not all, had moved because they were aware that they needed to move.

“Government, I should say, will not be blackmailed because we had done everything humanly possible and you know that the hallmark of this government has been compassion. It is a compassionate government.”

PUNCH.

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