The demolition of several buildings at the multi-billion naira Alaba International Market by the Lagos government began on Sunday, leaving many shop owners in limbo.
On Tuesday morning, when TheCable went to the market, many of the affected shop owners were down.
The demolished buildings, according to the Lagos government, "were distressed."
Last Friday, the general manager of the Lagos State Building Control Agency (LASBCA), Gbolahan Oki, stated that some of the buildings had been marked with quit notices since 2016, and that the occupants frequently "harass officials of the agency whenever they want to carry out their duties."
However, Calistus Ezenwa, a affected trader along the Alaba Rago/Ojo Alaba axis, stated that the majority of traders were unaware of the notice in a voice that was clearly shaken.
“They gave us notice to park outside of our shops just a few weeks ago. Everyone is now dispersed. It's just fancy to put it on the market right now. I have no plans right now. This is unfair.
"I was in the market seven years ago and I did not hear about it (the notice to quit),"
Another affected shop owner, John Nebonta, claimed that the traders were given notice on June 1.
Nebonta added that "there was no notice of such" and that he had been operating in the market since 2016.
Nebonta claimed that three days prior to the demolition, he was required to pay the state government a tax of N70,000. "They (LASBCA) gave us a 7-day ultimatum on June 1, 2023," he said. The market leaders taxed each shop for N70,000 after a week. I paid. We went to Alausa to answer to the specialists," Nebonta said.
“They stated that we should pay the fee in installments and that they would provide us with state government accounts; unaware that they had other goals. As a result, we each contributed N70,000, and on Thursday of last week, we were able to raise approximately N6,022,942.
Nebonta went on to say that there are rumors that private developers want to build a new commercial complex called "New Alaba" on the land where the shops were destroyed.
Credit: The Cable
){kind=link}