Posted by By Abimbola Akosile on
Traders and inhabitants of the popular Gatankowa market in Oke-Odo area of Abule-Egba Lagos, have condemned the August 23 demolition of 75 shops in Agbado/Oke-Odo by council officials, despite a standing Ikeja High Court order to the contrary.
Traders and inhabitants of the popular Gatankowa market in Oke-Odo area of Abule-Egba Lagos, have condemned the August 23 demolition of 75 shops in Agbado/Oke-Odo by council officials, despite a standing Ikeja High Court order to the contrary.
Pouring out their woes to newsmen at the site yesterday, traders, mostly tailors who service the thriving second-hand clothes market, claimed the Council officials swooped on their shops by 6.00am in the morning and commenced destruction of their wares and property, despite payment of levies and rents.
The land which allegedly belongs to the Federal Government, had lost a previous legal bid to dislodge the traders from the land. The matter had been decided in the traders' favour by then Justice Sikiru Adagun in 1999.
Affected shop-owners, some of whom claimed to have bought their shops outright from Oke-Odo Council for sums varying from eighty to two hundred thousand naira as far back as 2001 (with available receipts); claimed the officials had defied court orders and police intervention, going ahead to demolish the shops despite entreaties with the excuse that the council wants to reconstruct a new market complex with lock-up shops.