The recent demolition of plazas at the Alaba International Electronics Market by the Lagos State government officials left in its wake tears, pains and loss of billions of naira as owners of the plazas recount their losses
By Josuha Chiemerie
Traders who have business at the Alaba International Electronics Market are still smarting from the bruises, pains and loss of goods , revenues since the demolition of about 8 plazas at the market. Investigation revealed that billions of naira were lost during the demolition, and some of the owners of the plazas are said to be hospitalized because of the shock of seeing their investments gone down the drain without retrieving their goods while the demolition lasted. It is on record that the plazas demolished have all the proper documentation before they were demolished , and the owners of the plazas are taken aback that the same government officials that offered them the go ahead to erect the structures have turned back to renege on the documented promises made to the owners of the plazas.
The Lagos State government in its first response to the outcry that trailed the demolition, stated that proper notices were served on the owners of the plazas. According to the notices, the structures were defective aside from constituting obstruction to the free-flow of the canal at the market that may plunge the market into flood if action was not taken on time. Officials of the Lagos State government insisted that notices of the demolition were served two years ago, and reminder last year but all those notices were ignored, and even some of the owners of plazas were erecting new plazas in those corridors that constitute obstruction to the free-flow of drainage.
However, the Alaba Market Electronics Traders Association begs to differ in the said notices served the owners of the plazas before the demolition. According to them, they acknowledged notices were served but the reason adduced in serving the notice is far from the truth. The traders insinuated that the officials of the Lagos State government approved the erection of new plazas which were demolished and even some of the plazas that were never marked for demolition were affected during the exercise, adding that there was no reason whatsoever to have involved the ones that were not marked for demolition. The question they are asking is what becomes of the owners of the plazas that were destroyed even when their plazas were not marked for destruction or prior notices given in the first place.
The prayers of the traders in the market are that the Lagos State government should look into the reason adduced for the demolition because the plazas never constituted any obstruction to the free-flow the canal. They insisted that compensation should be extended to the owners of the plazas because some of the owners borrowed money to build the plazas and have not made any returns before the alleged malicious demolition. The traders through the President of the Alaba International Electronics Market Traders Association , Camilus Amajuoyi dismissed the intervention of some politicians from the South East , saying those who paraded themselves as spokespersons of the Alaba Traders are mere self-serving because none of the officials of the market association was consulted.
It would be recalled that Governor Hope Uzodinma of Imo State and the Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives, Honourable Benjamin Kalu had visited the Lagos State governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu to solicit his intervention in the Alaba Electronics market saga, whereupon a committee was set up to look into the issues that elicited the demolition and how to find lasting solution to it. This is because many citizens of the South East extraction have read political meaning into the demolition and concluded it may not have been unconnected with the 2023 general election during which the Igbo of the South East voted overwhelmingly for the Labour Party.
“ Even the committee constituted by the Lagos State government to look into the matter has none of our members in the committee set up to discuss our matter”, Amajuoyi lamented, adding that It is unheard of that you are going to shave somebody’s head in his absence. The traders told this medium in the course of investigating the remote and immediate causes of the demolition of the plazas without proper discussions that it was politically motivated.
An informed source told this medium that political vendetta is being attached to the demolition because weeks after the Lagos State House of Assembly Speaker, Honourable Ikuforiji made a statement to the effect that the Assembly would legislate against property acquisition in Lagos State by non-indigenes, adding that the state is Yoruba state, therefore, other ethnic nationalities cannot come to the state and begin to acquire property. Few weeks after the statement credited to the Speaker, Lagos State government officials embarked on demolition exercise at the Alaba International Electronics Market without carrying the traders associaton of the market along before the demolition. According to an informed source, the portion of the market demolished has been allegedly sold to an estate development company based in China and owned by a China citizen. The company is alleged to have started construction even when the portion of the market is still in contention. The developer will build and still sell to the members of the market who allegedly bought the lands from the natives, processed the necessary documents at the Lagos State government offices empowered to issue Certificate of Occupancy, concerning the lands that they are going to rent from the developers.
Traders in the market are calling on the governor of Lagos State to do the needful and return the disputed portions of the lands at the market to avoid reading political meaning to the demolition as currently is the case.
