Abbattoir traders groan as council demolishes market

After the demolition

Traders at  the Abattoir Market in the Ojokoro Local Council Development Area were jolted on Monday morning when the LCDA demolished a section of the market.

Many of them said they lost their wares while some explained that they had bought some of the stalls outright from the Ojokoro LCDA.

According to some of the affected traders,  they had  yet to get to the market when the demolition team, in company with a detachment of police  from the Rapid Response Squad, arrived with a bulldozer.

Those of them who were around said the demolition squad arrived around 8.30am, with the armed policemen taking positions at strategic points.

The market located along the old Ota Road had become a heap of rubble when our correspondent got there at 12.00 noon.

“They came around 8.30am and they started to demolish the market,” one of the affected traders, Mrs. Nike Bakare,  said. “Some of us had just arrived when we saw the policemen and bulldozer. We quickly  packed what we could and ran out.”

Bakare,  who said she had a stall on which she paid a monthly rent in the market where she sold clothes, noted that they never expected that the Ojokoro LCDA could treat them in such a manner.

A Hausa stall owner, Mr. Yusuf Bala, said he just paid a sum of N500,000 to the LCDA for the stall. He added that his only source of income had gone with the wind.

“Me I sell my farm for home, and I borrow money from my people to buy the shop last year. Now everything I don finish. Me I no know where I go go,” he said in pidgin English. Bala stated that he sold fruits and vegetables in the stall.

Also in Bala’s shoes is one Mrs. Akinwunmi, who also said she had bought a stall four years ago for N300,000.

Akinwunmi  was weeping like a baby at the scene of the demolition and words failed her when our correspondent wanted to talk to her. Her colleagues said she sold vegetable oil and seasonings.

Another trader, Mrs. Ibrahim Omotayo, who said she sold cutlery in her own stall, where she paid N2,500 as monthly rent, also told our correspondent that she lost some of her wares. She explained that some boys who pretended to be helping her to pack some of her wares actually went away with them.

Some of the traders said they got a quit notice from the Ojokoro LCDA while others said they were never served any notice.

When our correspondent visited the Ojokoro LCDA headquarters, the chairman was said to be unavailable. “He is attending a meeting at the Alausa Secretariat,” one of the officials in the information unit,  who did not reveal her name,  said. She said she could not speak on the development.

Source: Punch Newspaper