NAN – The Lagos State Government (LASG) on Thursday, March 31, 2016 barred some traders from displaying their wares by the road sides and in the open at Oyingbo Market due to their failure to occupy some of the vacant shops in the multi-million naira new market.
A News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) correspondent who visited the market reports that the traders were barred by a team of officials of the Kick Against Indiscipline (KAI), a state government-owned agency, and men of the state police command.
They were seen parading the market.
Mrs Iyabo Olusegun, a trader in the main Oyingbo Market, told NAN that the government wanted the traders to move into the new market complex inaugurated in March 2015 by former Gov. Babatunde Fashola.
Olusegun said that part of the delay in taking over the complex was because the traders had yet to resolve issues on right of ownership.
“Before the complex was built, some traders owned shops in the old market. Now that it is a new complex, if it is shared according to those who originally owned the shops, it will not go round them.
“There are other unresolved issues that have contributed to the delay in occupying the complex,’’ Olusegun said.
NAN recalled that Alhaja Basira Balogun, the women leader of the market, had earlier appealed to Gov. Akinwunmi Ambode to hand-over the new market complex to traders.
Balogun said that the handing over was long overdue since the market was inaugurated in March, 2015.
She said that if the market had been handed over to the traders, they would know how to distribute and manage it.
Balogun said that lack of adequate drainage channels around the entire market was causing flooding whenever it rained and urged the government to look into the issue.
Oyingbo Market was established in the 1920s as a depot for farm products and from there grew to a commercial centre.
The new complex has 902 lock-up shops, 49 open offices and 134 toilets.
Other facilities in the complex include a 150-capacity car park, water treatment plant, sewage and refuse treatment plants, fire safety gadgets, 1,000KVA transformers, and six-gate houses, among others.
