Pandemonium, tears and agony greet Ambode’s demolition of Oshodi

For the second time in six years, traders in the popular Oshodi Market have been jolted by the government of Lagos State as overriding public interest has caused them all their lives investments. Our features team, OLABIMPE OYETUBO; ISMAILA OGUNTADE; BABAJIDE OKEOWO, report.

It started like a replay of former Governor Raji Fashola’s espionage on the East side of the popular Mosafejo market at Oshodi in 2009 when bulldozers sneaked on unsuspecting security men and squatters in the market and pulled down shops, stalls and whatever stands in the name of trading. So it happened again about midnight on Wednesday at the popular electrical/ electronic market also known as Owonifari market by Ground Zero at Oshodi. Lagos workers and early morning traders all got the shock of their lives as they beheld a hail of smoke and dust where the market has been traditionally for over 40 years.

All through the night, Daily Times gathered that officials of the Lagos State Task Force on Monitoring and Enforcement Unit had been busy in their task of leveling the market for some five hours. Another contingent of a combined team of stern looking policemen and officials of the War Against Indiscipline (WAI) arrived the scene around 5.00 am Thursday morning, followed by a fresh batch of demolition team confirming Lagos State government’s resolve to recover the ground to pave way for a better Lagos Mega City status.

The environment was cordoned off immediately and the area demarcated with red and white tapes, while caterpillars ruthlessly brought down the stalls and remnants of structures that survived the night invasion. Daily Times team which arrived the military atmosphere was greeted by battle ready enforcement team; Black Maria vans were on ground to warn anyone who dares the task force team.

Like a General deciding to carve a niche for himself, Lagos State Governor, Akinwunmi Ambode personally supervised the leveling and burning of the entire site in the early hours of Thursday morning (yesterday). The Governor who arrived the scene about 7.30 in the morning was accompanied by the Commissioner for the Environment, Babatunde Adejare, officials of KAI, more police men and some other top government officials. Traders at the market were seen lamenting and weeping in disbelief at the place that once represented their entire life labour and future being destroyed before their eyes.

A large number of sympathisers who were both enjoying and absorbing the scene with some gathered on top of the pedestrian bridge and adjoining roads nearby, watching as the exercise continued. Spectators debated the destruction at dawn; a section believe government must have given notice to the traders before descending in this magnitude. Others argued that the traders should have been allowed to evacuate their wares before bulldozing the market.

Like a General deciding to carve a niche for himself, Lagos State Governor, Akinwunmi Ambode personally supervised the leveling and burning of the entire site in the early hours of Thursday morning (yesterday). The Governor was accompanied by the Commissioner for the Environment, Babatunde Adejare, officials of KAI, more police and some other top government officials. A statement from the office of the Commissioner for the environment stated that “The Lagos State Government has shut the Owonifari Market in the Oshodi area and relocated affected traders and shop owners to a newly built Isopakodowo Market in the Bolade area also in Oshodi. The government has also started the fencing off of the road set back on Agege Motor Road from the Ilupeju end of Oshodi to the PWD/Ikeja GRA area.

The Commissioner for Information and Strategy, Mr. Steve Ayorinde on Tuesday said the move was geared towards the need to sanitise and beautify the Oshodi area and bring transformation in particular to the Owonifari area as well as the entire bus stop terminal which had been constituting a menace and an eyesore in the locality. Ayorinde said the Owonifari area will be transformed into an ultramodern bus terminal with new bus shelters that are befitting of a structured park in a mega city. He added that the yorinde said, “The ongoing fencing off and beautification of the road set back from Ilupeju bypass to PWD/Ikeja GRA and stretch to the Agege/ Pen Cinema area.

“Lagosians should expect from this transformation exercise a new Oshodi that will be sane and safe, and where both traders and commuters will be pleased to visit and trade. The traders being relocated have been properly allocated shops within the Isopaakodowo Market. The demolition of some structures in the area is in the best interest of the people who should expect a world-class bus terminal there.” The commissioner reiterated Gov Akinwunmi Ambode’s commitment to bringing development to every area of the state. He urged the residents, local authority and other stakeholders, to cooperate with the government in achieving the vision of making the 2016 budget work for Lagosians. Daily Times team spoke some of the affected traders some of who have been trading in the market for decades.

Mr. Emeka Ndukwe, a victim of the Owonifari market in Oshodi area of Lagos State, who sells LCD in the market in Are we not Nigerians? Is this government not trying to promote crime? — Victims eight years, right from when he has been serving his master before he graduated to the be independent on his own. He put his loss to over N800,000 worth of goods to the demolition and destruction. “Many members of my family both in Lagos and in the village are fed from this business.

“The new shop government claims to have provided cannot accommodate even half of the over 6,000 traders here, and then the worse thing is that the price they demand for the shops is not affordable.” Emeka appealed to the His Exellency, Governor Akinwunmi Ambode to save the soul of the traders in Owonifari Part of the market after demolition. block F5, said the government gave them only one week notice to vacate the market and move to the new building located at Market.

For Ajah Amos, the incident will always remain indelible in his mind as it was a rude awakening to him and the demolition came as a shock. Lamenting his woes, he said government only gave them two weeks’ notice to pack out of the market and immediately they got the notice. “We sought to dialogue with the government; we were asked to come back so we could get the feedback from the government only for us to wake up this morning to find the market levelled to the ground.”