Ladipo remodeling: Mushin LG begins market demolition

AFTER months of rancour between the Mushin Local Government and traders at the popular Ladipo spare parts market, bulldozers were finally moved into the market around 4.30pm on Thursday last week, which kickstarted the demolition of shops and proposed remodeling of the multi-billion Naira market.

Before now, traders at the market had approached a Lagos High Court, Ikeja, seeking an order stopping the demolition of the market, following the initial attempt by the council to demolish the market in June.

In the suit filed on their behalf by Lagos-based human rights activist, Richard Nwankwo, the traders sought injunctive reliefs and claims over alleged theft of cash, vehicle spare parts, as well as the destruction of properties.

Relying on the celebrated case of Ojukwu v. Military Governor of Lagos State, reported in 1985, 2 Nigeria Weekly Law Report, Part 10, where the court held that: “Everybody including private individual, public individual, government or Police are forbidden to take possession or re-possession of a premises by self-help, force, strong hand or with a multitude of people, the traders insisted that the action of the Mushin local council was ultra vires and therefore null and void.

The matter was, however, struck out following an agreement signed by the leadership of the traders with the council, which paved way for the renewed demolition of the market.

But the demolition was not without hitches as some traders, who were ordered to vacate the market attempted to resist as the bulldozer moved.

Some goods were destroyed in the ensuing pandemonium, as many of the traders were not in their shops because of the Independence Day celebration and public holiday.

A Toyota engine dealer, who gave his name simply as Emeka, expressed shock that the demolition exercise started on Thursday even though the agreement with the local government was to vacate the market on Sunday, October 4, 2015 while demolition will commence on October 5, 2015.

According to him, the decision to rush the demolition was against the tenet of the agreement reached with the council.
He lamented that as a result of the mix-up, street urchins otherwise known as Area boys helped themselves to the wares and goods of the traders.

But The Guardian gathered from an insider that the decision to start the demolition on a public holiday was to forestall break down of law and order, which might follow resistance from traders who are not in support with the agreement.

According to the source, given the mounting tension, which greeted the initial attempt, it was strategic to take the traders unaware.

A frontline trader, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the legal action was discontinued after a group, Igbo Consciousness in APC, tricked the traders’ association, led by Mr. Kingsley Ikechukwu Ogunor, into signing an undertaking that the remodeling of the market should start by October 1.

But Ogunor in a reaction to the latest development 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.