Cries And Wailings As Ladipo Market Is Demolished

Shrill cries and wailings rent the air yesterday at the popu­lar
Ladipo automobile mar­ket in Mushin Local Govern­ment Area of Lagos
State, as traders watched helplessly when bulldozers demolished their
shops to pave way for remodelling of the market.

Area boys helped themselves to the wares and goods of the traders.

Tension started building up in the mar­ket in June following the
disagreement between the traders and the council over the demolition
of the market, and its re­modelling.

Based on the protest, Ttracing the gen­esis of the crisis, the market
leader said, the problem started with the Mushin Lo­cal Government
that wanted to remodel the market by demolishing it, without carrying
the traders along and also to give them enough notice to remove their
goods.

The leader of the traders' association, Mr. Kingsley Ikechukwu Ogunor,
had told Saturday Sun last July, how they were coerced into signing
eviction notice by the authorities of Mushin council and the
developer. But Mushin council denied it.

Based on the protest, the demolition that had started in July, was stopped.

However, events took a sour note yes­terday when bulldozers ran over
the mar­ket.

Saturday Sun findings revealed that a group, Igbo Consciousness in APC
had tricked Mr. Ogunor into signing an undertaking that the
remodelling of the market should start by October 1, and by then the
Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the developers would have been
signed.

Few days after the leader of the traders signed the undertaking, the
developer was said to have travelled outside the country without
sealing the MoU as agreed, only to return on September 30, for
demolition to commence the following day.

Commenting on this latest develop­ment, Ogunor said the developer was
acting in line with the agreement they reached.

According to him, they agreed that demolition would begin by October
1, and each stall, after completion, will be leased for N20 million
for 10 years pe­riod.

-TheSunNews