Lagos State Governor Akinwunmi Ambode yesterday gave Agbado-Oke Odo Market traders seven days to stop trading on the roadside or have the place shut.
At a meeting with the market leaders held at the Lagos House in Ikeja, Ambode said the government could no longer condone the traders excesses.
The traders, he said, were in the habit of displaying their wares on the road, thereby causing traffic gridlock and other environmental nuisance.
Ambode, represented by the Secretary to the State Government, Mr Tunji Bello, said the market leaders had been warned several times to rein in the traders. This, he noted, has not yielded result as some of the traders have become recalcitrant.
Besides causing traffic, the traders, he said, were also fond of dumping refuse on the road.
The governor said: “This is just to come and deliberate on the Agbado Oke-Odo Market because of the situation there. The market has become a stumbling block particularly to those using the road. The traders have blocked the Lagos-Abeokuta Expressway to the extent that even the contractors working there don’t have place to work because they have taken over the area.
“They cause a lot of traffic gridlock and people coming from Ota or from Abule Egba don’t have the road to connect other areas. We have warned them consistently but we are yet to get any result. That is why we have summoned today’s (yesterday’s) meeting.
“The meeting is basically to call them to order and give them the last warning. The idea initially was to shut down the market today but the governor decided that we should give them just one week to put things in order.”
He said though government was not interested in shutting down markets, it would wield the big stick if traders continue to constitute themselves as menace to other road users.
“What we are saying is that the government is not interested in shutting down any market because of the economic implication on the people who have to survive and live. As a government, we are not interested in shutting down business enterprises and all that, but if it is constituting a menace and inconveniencing other people, we will have no choice than to wield the big stick, and that is why we are giving the market leaders the last warning to go and re-order their market.
“The leaders of the market must sit up and look at how to help government because we cannot say because we are trading, we should inconvenience people who go to work from Abule Egba to Lagos Island for instance and to other places and they have to spend hours on that road just because of the activities of the traders.
“Apart from that, we have a lot of filth on the road because the market people just dump their refuse on the road. We don’t want that anymore and that is why we are giving this last warning. We don’t want anybody on the road again and whatever we have to do internally as a government, we will not hesitate to do. We will send task force and the men of the Kick Against Indiscipline (KAI) to the place to ensure sanity.
“This warning to Agbado Oke-Odo traders also applies to other markets in the state. Any market where traders are blocking the road and constituting menace to others will be shut down till further notice,” the governor warned.
Responding on behalf of others, Babaloja Araromi Agbado Oke-Odo Alhaji Mukaila Oyinlola said the traders have ignored all warnings to leave’ the road. He said the government’s resolve was welcome.
Iyaloja Araromi Oke-Odo Market Mrs Dupe Shonola and Babaloja General of Agbado Oke-Odo Market Alhaji Abiodun Kosoko called for the expansion and modernisation of the market.
