The Nation Newspaper

Tag: Mile 12 market

  • Lagos okays 1,427 development permits

    •To relocate Mile 12 Market

    The Lagos State Government has approved over 1,427 development permits out of 1,840 applications it received.

    This is a significant improvement in the time frame for the evaluation of Physical Planning technical reports and the granting of development permits.

    The state Commissioner for Physical Planning and Urban Development, Mr Toyin Ayinde, said in his office that there have been improvement in the time frame for granting development permits, representing 87 per cent unlike what happened in the past.

    He said the new time frame is an average of about four months unlike before when people wait endlessly before they got their approvals.

    On stemming building collapse, he said the ministry would extend its services soon, especially the monitoring of the removal of illegal structures and arrest of developers and their workers at sites beyond the regular working hours.

    He said: “Beyond this, the ministry has put measures in place to curb the incidents of building collapse in the state by compulsory integrity test of buildings and construction materials in conjunction with the State Materials Testing Agency, identification and removal of distressed buildings, removal of illegal and non-conforming buildings. Others are inspections and certification of various stages of building construction and the evaluation of on-going and completed projects.”

    He raised the alarm over the high rate of abandoned building projects in the state and its security implications at the last count, adding that the figure rose to about 417, which he said, was unacceptable. The commissioner, however, said government’s efforts were yielding results as 15 developers were returned on site at the Oniru Estate in Victoria Island.

    He warned that the government would penalise defaulters to check the ugly trend to preserve lives and properties.

    Ayinde also disclosed the preparedness of the government to transfer the regional food stuff commodities market in Mile 12 to Parafa Ikorodu.

    On the reason behind the transfer, the commissioner said it was conceived as a result of the incessant problem generated by Mile 12 Market operators and the need to relocate the market to a new spacious environment, that is well-planned for maximum efficiency.

  • Mile 12 market fire victims: we lost everything

    Mile 12 market, Ketu in Ikosi/Isheri Local Council Development Area (LCDA) of Lagos State, went up in flames on Sunday night, with goods and cash running into millions of naira destroyed.

    The goods destroyed included bags of rice, beans and garri; jerry cans of groundnut oil and palm oil; clothing materials, cartons of frozen chicken, turkey, fish and electronics, including deep freezers and refrigerators.

    The cash burnt was kept by traders in their shops.

    While the victims suspect arson, the market leaders attributed the cause of the fire to a power cable, which they said dropped on the roof of a shop and sparked the fire. The police told The Nation yesterday that the cause was yet to be ascertained.

    The traders alleged that a social miscreant was sighted on the roof burgling the shop, adding that in an attempt to facilitate his escape, his colleagues torched the shops when they discovered that a trader had gone to report to the police.

    In the ensuing confusion, the suspect was believed to have escaped.

    It was said that the miscreants, popularly known as “area boys”, had been burgling the shops at night, carting away properties and cash.

    A trader, Ajibola Alex, said he left his shop in the afternoon to attend a party and came back around 9p.m to meet it burgled and about N1 million stolen.

    Ajibola said he discovered that the burglars came in through the roof. He left his friends to keep watch while he ran to Mile 12 Police Station to report.

    He said while returning from the station with two policemen, he saw his shop in flames.

    Besides money, Ajibola said, bags of rice were also burnt.

    A rice merchant, simply addressed as Alhaja Aristo, said millions of naira that she kept in a deep freezer were burnt to ashes.

    She said the money came from one-week proceeds from two trailer loads of rice.

    Mrs. Sola Omeke, a groundnut oil trader, said the shop where she kept hundreds of jerry cans of groundnut oil was razed.

    Omeke said: “I am finished. Everything I had, including money was in that shop”.

    Iya Nuru, another trader, recounting her experience to sympathisers, said the burglars broke in through the window of a room belonging to another trader, Iya Ibeji, behind her shop. From there, she said, they entered her shop through the roof and carted away the proceeds of the sales made during the weekend.

    Iya Nuru said she was forced to keep the money in the shop since the banks had closed.

    The Baba Oloja Jesu Oyingbo, Prophet Adewale Odumosu, said before the fire, the whole area was in darkness, adding that when electricity was restored, a cable fell off the pole and caused the fire.

    Odumosu said the traders had always been advised against keeping money overnight in their shops.

    Yesterday, some traders tried to salvage certain items from the debris. Others were trying to cordon off the burnt area to prevent it from being taken over by the government. This caused a disagreement among the traders, who accused one another of encroachment.