In the middle of the night on Thursday, earth-moving equipment roared into the crowded Owode Onirin Market along Ikorodu Road in Lagos State and cut down multiple structures, leaving goods worth several millions in the open. This happened in the absence of the owners of these goods.

In the company of the operators of the excavators were police, soldiers and armed thugs in their numbers deployed to prevent resistance from traders and to allow the demolition to go on.

The entire market is divided into zones according to specific types of trading. The part demolished was occupied by traders who specialised in the sale of second-hand vehicle tyres.

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Some market leaders told FIJ that neither Lagos State Government nor the authorities in Agboyi-Ketu Local Council Development Area led by Dele Oshinowo had any formal engagement with them prior to the demolition. They believed the demolition was jointly sanctioned by the state and the LCDA authorities.

“About five months ago, some people came here to demolish our shops, but we succeeded in preventing them with the help of Femi Saheed, the state lawmaker representing Kosefe Constituency II at the Lagos House of Assembly,” Moruf, a trader, simply identified by his first name for safety reasons, said.

“What Saheed did was that he came here and asked the intruders, accompanied by police officers, to produce any legal document supporting their mission. They could not provide any paper. So, he went to the Ketu Police Station and inquired whether the officers had made any report about their intended activity at the market. He discovered that they did not make any report. He came back and told us about his findings. He also did a video call with Assembly Speaker Mudashiru Obasa, and the speaker said the assembly was not aware of such a development. That was how we chased them away.”

Following that incident, the traders staged a protest at the assembly. Moruf said Obasa addressed them at the assembly and promised the traders that the legislature would call them back after fishing out the people behind the incident.

Moruf also said that the LCDA chairman had been the one threatening to take over the market.

“The assembly never called us as they promised. The LCDA chairman also did not have any meetings or dialogue with us. He said he had no business with the market, but he had secretly obtained a C-of-O [certificate of occupancy] over the market, and we now have a copy of it. He had been threatening to take the market for some years,” Moruf said.

“We are tax and municipal dues complaint. We pay tax to the state and a series of annual dues to the LCDA. The chairman was desperately interested in displacing us.”

This demolition effectively rendered the traders displaced. There was nowhere they could move to to continue their trade and economic activities.

“It was midnight. Most of us were sleeping in our homes when we started receiving calls that our shops were being demolished. Before we could arrive, the deed had been done. More so, we were fasting as Muslims and lacked any strength to resist them,” said Moruf.

FIJ was told that traders lost many of their goods and some were stolen in the course of the demolition. The sources interviewed added that there was hardly anyone who did not lose valuable goods aside from their structures saying they were already licking their wounds.

“Now, there is no alternative place to move us to. We are not against any decision by the government, but they should not treat us like miscreants or aliens. We are legitimate occupiers of this market. But they just decided to drive us out without any responsible engagement on what they intend to use the land for and where they intend to relocate us. As I speak with you, we are displaced traders,” Rasheed, another trader identified by his first name, said.

“Abiodun, our general chairman, was detained for three days. The armed thugs chased him and inflicted some cuts on him. With those cuts, he spent days in detention and was only released on Saturday evening.

“We believe the governor is aware because the LCDA chairman and other officials cannot take such a consequential decision without his knowledge.”

When FIJ visited the affected market on Monday, scavengers were observed digging the ground for old treasures while shop owners were engaged in salvaging whatever they could pick from the rubbles.

FIJ confirmed the presence of a joint security team comprising soldiers and police officers. The armed operatives sat at different spots while some thugs walked around.

OSHINOWO: ‘OMO ONILE, NOT GOVERNMENT, DEMOLISHED THE MARKET’

Oshinowo denied the account of the traders. He denied any involvement in the demolition, saying that some family landowners, who claimed to own that part of the market, were the ones who executed a Supreme Court judgment delivered in their favour.

“What they said is not true. Agboyi-Ketu is not involved. My mother was a trader and there is no way we would displace traders from anywhere for redevelopment without engaging and planning with them,” Oshinowo said on the phone on Tuesday.

“The market had issues with Omo Onile [a local name for indigenous landowners] as far back as the 1990s. They were relocated from Jankara to Ketu and the state government gave them a letter of relocation. Subsequently, the landowners challenged their occupation of the land. The Omo Onile won them up to the Supreme Court. The traders’ singular defence was the letter of relocation, they failed to join the state, Shomolu, Kosofe Local Governments and the Agboyi-Ketu.

“Because of the judgment, the landowners had been attempting to demolish the place without success. This time around, they succeeded. They also obtained an order against the Physical Planning Department to enforce the judgment.

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“I was called on the day they were demolishing it and I went there without any security protection, trying to prevent it. Unfortunately, security operatives present teargassed me. I was also pelted with stones and bottles. I had to run to safety.

“But the market people would not stop accusing me of demolishing the market. I have told them they are free to do that. I had a meeting with them in early January on how to solve the problem. There, I instructed them to mount a signpost so that trespassers would be aware that there was a problem over the land, but they refused to do that.

“I am liaising with the state government to find a solution to this but I am not going to disclose my moves to anyone. The traders are the ones causing problems for themselves. Whenever you discuss with them, they release the information to Omo Onile.”

The state government established Owode Onirin Market when Lateef Jakande governed Lagos between 1979 and 1983.