Traders
at Ladipo Main Market in Mushin, Lagos State, western Nigeria, were in
shock and tears as bulldozer and a team of security personnel arrived
the market on Thursday to demolish the market for reconstruction.
As
at 4.30 pm on Thursday shops had been brought down while the exercise
continues on Friday. Traders were ordered to leave the market with their
goods and when they attempted to resist, the bulldozer moved in and
started the demolition.
Some goods were destroyed as many of the
traders were not in their shops because of the Independence Day
celebration and public holiday.
Traders and the Mushin Local
government had been at loggerheads over plans to re-construct the market
and turn it into a modern plaza.
The traders, through their
leaders alleged that they were not carried along before the plans to
re-construct the market was carried out.
They expressed concern
over what happened to shop owners in other markets where such
reconstruction was carried out and they never got back their shops after
the reconstruction.
It was because of that that they resisted
the plan and went to a Lagos High Court to obtain an injunction to stop
the demolition.
Following the order, the traders, developer and
Mushin Local Government went into discussion and negotiation which led
to a truce. And the traders, through their BOT chairman, Nnamdi
Chukwuka, withdrew the matter from the court.
P.M.NEWS gathered
that at the meeting it was agreed that the traders would vacate their
shops on 1 October, 2015 for work to begin in some parts of the market.
It was in line with the agreement that the developer moved in and started the demolition.
The
traders who spoke to our reporter said they had agreed to vacate the
market on Sunday, 4 October, for work to start on Monday, 5 October.
They
said they were shockec when the the government officials came and asked
the traders to move out and did not allow them to remove anything in
their shops before demolishing their shops.
As at the time of
filing this report the demolition was still going on as traders were
busy removing their goods from the rubble in their shops.
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