Daleko Market traders beg Ambode, local council
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TRADERS at the popular Daleko Rice Market in Mushin Local Council of Lagos State are lamenting the plan by Mushin Local Council to demolish the market. The distressed traders complained of the notice they got from the local council through the Iya-Oloja (head of market women) of the market two weeks ago.

The letter, which is dated November 12, 2015 and addressed to the Iyaloja, informed the market executives of plans by the council to remodel Daleko Market, with an award of contract to Rashfunk Nigeria Limited for the redevelopment of a part of the market.

The letter signed by the council’s head of administration, Prince S.A. Olujobi, advised affected traders to vacate the market within two weeks to enable the contractor move to site.

The traders are resisting the council’s latest redevelopment plan owing to the agreement reach when there was a fire outbreak that destroyed almost all their goods in the market two years ago. According to them, they all pooled funds together among the traders to rebuild the market without any aid from government.

“The Iya-Oloja here is telling us history we do not even understand. As a matter of fact, Mushin Council does not have a chairman. This is the handiwork of the Caretaker Committee,” Alhaja Olajumoke Yusuf, president of Edible Oil Association, Lagos, said.

“We were asked by the council to vacate the market within two weeks and since then, we could neither sleep nor eat. We reported the matter to Mrs. Folashade Tinubu-Ojo, the Iya-Oloja General and she promised to help us but up till now, we have not seen any help. We cannot vacate unless the developer refunds our money we spent to rebuild the market. Besides that, we have been paying for the shops to the council. We don’t want our case to be like the displaced traders in Mushin and Tejuosho markets,” she added.

Alhaja S.O. Akinsete, popularly called Aunty Ondo, president of the Rice Sellers’ Association, said: “The embarrassment is too much. We lost so much to the fire outbreak but the government did not help us in rebuilding it. We did it ourselves and now, the government is trying to drive us out and many of us are widows struggling to survive.

“We are not dictating to Ambode’s government but he should help us prevent these people from demolishing our market. By the time they rebuild this market, they will rent it to us at exorbitant price,” she said.

Ifatunde Aremu, a physically challenged barber, who owns a salon in the market, said he sustained injury when he was trying to pack some of his working tools immediately the fire broke out. “I was the one who raised alarm that fire had gutted the market because I slept in my shop that night. I decided to do business at Daleko Market so I would not beg on the street. If they drive us out of this place, the streets will be flooded with beggars because there will be nothing for us to do.”

The Public Relations Officer of Mushin Local Council, Mr. Akinyemi Olusegun, when contacted for his reaction, said in Yoruba language that the market belongs to government and can do whatever it want with it. He refused to say anything further insisting it was not in his place to speak and that only the chairman has the power to talk. The Guardian was told the executive secretary was unavailable.