Lagos traders express anxiety over govt's demolition plan

Traders at the Ogba Retail Market, aka Sunday Market, in the Ojodu Local Council Development Area, Lagos, have called on the government to reverse its proposed plan to demolish the market.

The traders, who spoke with PUNCH Metro on Thursday, said they were worried over the local government’s demolition plan and the relocation of the traders.

It was learnt that the LCDA authorities had summoned the market leaders in September 2013, and intimated them about the plan to demolish the market, and to rebuild a modern structure.

However, protests by the traders to higher authorities, including the state House of Assembly, led to the setting up of a committee to look into the matter.

Our correspondent learnt that the Assembly’s committee on transport, commerce and industry, headed by Mr. Bisi Yusuf, had invited the two parties concerned to resolve the issue amicably.

However, the traders said they sensed that despite the ongoing process, the council had plans to embark on the demolition of the market, which according to them, would have negative implications.

According to one of them, Mrs. Wunmi Adeleke, the council should consider the health hazards and other difficulties traders will face after the demolition.

She said, “We implore the council not to demolish our shops, because the disadvantages of doing this are many. One, the place they are planning to relocate this market to is inadequate. Why would you relocate a market of over 800 traders to a government primary school? When did a school and a market start cohabiting?

“Also, most of us will no longer be able to afford the exorbitant fees that would later be charged for the shops. Look at markets in Lagos that were rebuilt and where traders were sent away, most of them have yet to come back because they cannot afford the new rent.”

Another trader, Mr. Ola Adewunmi, added that the market was a significant part of people’s lives, and government should tread with caution in relocating it.

“We are all tax payers. We are not hoodlums or illegal occupants. Most of our salesgirls and workers here are graduates from higher institutions. Where does the government want all of us to go? Instead of demolishing a thriving market, why can’t the government get a virgin land, and let the development spread?” he said.

Other traders who spoke on condition of anonymity called for a roundtable negotiation where there would be a memorandum of understanding between the traders and the local government authorities such that the interests of both parties would be protected.

“There is no problem if the council wants to build a new market, but it must be able to accommodate the traders that will be affected. And gradually, the unrest about this demolition plan is already scaring buyers away, the market activities are gradually slowing down,” one of them said.

However, when our correspondent called the LCDA Chairman, Mr. Julius Oloro, on the telephone, he was said to be unavailable.

The LCDA Supervisor for Environment, Wale Abdulsalam, who answered the chairman’s phone, said the LCDA had the interests of traders at heart, and would not do anything to unsettle them.

“We are making an alternative arrangement, and we plan to bring sufficient containers to the place where traders will be relocated to. I cannot ascertain the number of containers now, but there are good intents for this relocation,” he said.

Source:Punch Newspaper