Demolition of Owonifari Market in best interest of all – Lagos

As agitations continue to trail Tuesday’s demolition of Owonifari Market in Oshodi area of Lagos, the state government, Thursday, rose in defence of the action, saying it was in the overall best interest of Lagosians, as it would check crime, enhance security around the area and aid traffic flow.

Hundreds of traders, whose shops were reduced to rubble by bulldozers on the orders of the state, have been accusing the government of insensitivity and high handedness. The traders alleged that they were not given enough notice to remove their goods, which they claimed had been destroyed in the demolition exercise.

However, the state government in an inter-ministerial media briefing involving the ministries of information and strategy, local government and chieftaincy affairs, environment as well as physically planning and urban development, refuted the traders’ claim, saying they were served both quit and demolition notices on December 21 and 24, 2015, respectively, which majority of the traders complied with, except a few who choose to ignore it.

According to Steve Ajorinde, commissioner for information and strategy, asides providing the traders with alternative shops at Isopakodowo Market at Bolade-Oshodi, and reduced the rent per annum from N20,000 to N5,000 to pacify them and encourage them to relocate.

Ayorinde said officials of the government also engaged with the leadership of the market severally before carrying out the demolition exercise, saying it was important for the public to know that the issue of the market had been on for 10 years.

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 said.

He said having been satisfied that government had provided a befitting alternative, Governor Akinwunmi Ambode through the commissioner for local government and community affairs, invited the leadership of the market to the state executive chambers and met with them on December 16, 2015, where the governor reiterated his plans for Oshodi and the need to move the traders to Isopakodowo, which as of that time had been ready for a couple of years.

“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. The intention was not to destroy the market or destroy properties or to make life inconvenient for them. We believe very strongly that Isopakodowo market is quite ideal; it’s a lot bigger store-per-store than where they had been removed,” Ajorinde said.

Also, Babatunde Adejare, the commissioner for the environment, said the government believed that the exercise would largely reduce the gridlock associated with that area and then the criminalities that were rampant in Oshodi. “What we have done is in the interest of the generality of Lagosians,” he said.