BY VINCENT KALU
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.
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