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Tag: Oshodi

  • Oshodi world class transport interchange ready in 15 months – Ambode

    Oshodi world class transport interchange ready in 15 months – Ambode

    Lagos State Governor, Mr. Akinwunmi Ambode on Wednesday said the long awaited regeneration of Oshodi into a world class Central Business District (CBD) will commence next week with the construction of Transport Interchange which will feature the consolidation of all 13 city and interstate parks in Oshodi into 3 multi-story bus terminals.

    The three floors, which will be 30, 000 square metres for each terminal, will take care of the parking and passenger demand.

    Governor Ambode, who spoke at a Stakeholders’ Forum put together by the State’s Ministry of Physical Planning and Urban Development on the planned regeneration of Oshodi, said the project was in line with his administration’s determination to transform Oshodi into a world class CBD with business, travel and leisure activities conducted in a serene, secure, clean, orderly and hygienic environment.

    The Governor, who was represented by the Commissioner for Waterfront Infrastructure Development, Engr. Adebowale Akinsanya, said the project would be delivered in 15 months.

    While addressing the key stakeholders including community leaders, transport workers, market men and women and others who gathered at Oshodi Youth Development Centre, venue of the Forum, Governor Ambode said: “The Oshodi you see today shall be a thing of the past in the next 15 months as a world class transport interchange will be coming up.”

    In her project presentation, Special Adviser to the Governor on Urban Development, Mrs. Yetunde Onabule said the concept of the regeneration plan is premised on a three pronged approach including Urban Renewal, Environmental Regeneration as well as Transformation and Security.

    According to her, Oshodi in its present state currently accommodates about one million pedestrians daily with about 100,000 passengers daily accessing the 13 parks scattered within the area, while 76 per cent of the area is dedicated to transport and related activities, which led to serious traffic congestion and other environmental issues.

    Onabule said that the new Oshodi CBD would not only reduce crime in the area, but also go a long way to address the environmental nuisance locations and areas of confusion often associated with the area.

    She said the new plan would also boost intra-tourism by making the area a tourist destination and increase the economic value of the State, where business, travel and leisure activities would be conducted in a serene, secure, clean and orderly environment.

    “This plan would see the total rebranding of the Old Oshodi, thus turning Lagos into a befitting and an iconic international gateway to the rest of the world. It would also ensure an organised transport system that will ensure free flowing traffic,” she said.

    She said the project, which is a Public Private Partnership initiative between the Lagos State Government, represented by Ibile Holdings, Translink Capital Development Limited and Planet Projects Limited would see the consolidation of all 13 city and interstate parks in the area into three multi-storey bus terminals to cater for parking and passenger demand.

    Onabule further explained that the Terminal One running from Mosafejo Market Axis would be for inter-state transport activities, while the Terminal Two and Three running from the former Owonifari Market and Adjacent to NAFDAC respectively will cater for intra-city transport activities.

    She said that the terminals would have standard facilities including waiting area, loading bays, ticketing stands, driver lounge, parking areas, rest rooms among others.

    “It would also come with accessible walkways and pedestrian bridges and a state-of-the-art sky-walk to link all the three terminals, introduction of bus lanes, lay-bys, introduction of green parks to soften the environment and proper waste management strategy, fencing, street lighting and a dedicated security team for Oshodi including surveillance tower, CCTVs and the likes,” she said.

    She added that the total area of the development of the Oshodi CBD master plan which is about 70,000 square metres will also accommodate shopping malls adjacent to the bus terminals.

    Onabule said that the project is scheduled to take off from June 1, 2016 and expressed optimism that on completion, the project would be of immense benefit to all Lagosians, especially major stakeholders including passengers, transport unions, transport operators as well as shop owners.

    Responding, Chairman of Lagos State Chapter of National Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW), Alhaji Tajudeen Agbede commended Governor Ambode for the laudable initiative, and pledged the support of his members towards the successful completion of the project.

    Also, the Executive Secretary of Oshodi-Isolo Local Government, Hon. Olajobi Adeola said with the project, Governor Ambode had demonstrated that he is a trail blazer and a man genuinely committed to the transformation of the State.

  • Man ‘kills’ brother in Oshodi

    A man, Remi Adelaja, has fled Oshodi, Lagos home after allegedly killing his elder brother, Mayowa.

    It was gathered that fled the 6, Adelaja Street off Afariogun, Oshodi scene of the incident before the police got there around 2am yesterday.

    The Nation gathered that Remi allegedly killed Mayowa following a misunderstanding over a torchlight.

    Sources said the late Mayowa had asked if he knew where the torchlight was and he allegedly answered in the negative.

    “Their mother, Mrs Lucky Adelaja is a bread seller. The suspect brought his five children to his father’s house after he lost his wife and since then, they have been staying together. Although, the deceased has been complaining about it.

    “The deceased was looking for torchlight and asked his younger brother who said he knew nothing about it. The issue later resulted to a quarrel because the two of them have been having problems.

    “The next thing they started fighting. The elder brother used iron rod to hit the younger one twice but the suspect ran inside, brought a knife and stabbed his older brother on the stomach.

    “That was how he fell down and died on the spot. Everyone ran only his mother was left. Then, Mayowa’s dogs surrounded him on the ground. The police came around 2am,” said the source.

    Police spokesperson, Dolapo Badmos, a Superintendent (SP), said the case was reported around 7:30am by the suspect’s mother.

    She added that efforts were on to apprehend the fleeing suspect.

  • Oshodi excited with emerging new stars

    President of NTTF, Wahid Oshodi has stated that the NTTF U-16 national league has once again showed that the country is endowed with enormous talents in the sport.

    “I have been watching table tennis for over 30 years and even though I am not a coach I must say that what we saw over the last two weeks especially in the boys category is of the highest standard. I have not seen such a large number playing such fantastic table tennis at this age. This for me is the most exceptional group of young boys I have seen. They can match any country in this age group. The girls’ standard was also quite good but we still need to encourage more girls to start playing at an earlier age. I am really pleased and I can’t wait for the Super League final in May to see the children again. It was also brilliant to see children from all over the country playing together and enjoying themselves and it was indeed a great success,” Oshodi said.

    “It is what we have always known, we have to catch them young and harness this fantastic talent that we have in this country. We will continue to look for ways to give these young boys and girls chance to expose and develop their talent. Our coaches have a lot more work now in assessing how we develop these children. We also now know that we must work closely with the state coaches who are doing such fantastic work with the little equipment they have. I thank them for the commitment they show towards finding and developing these youngsters at the grassroots level,” the NTTF boss opined.

  • New Oshodi market unsuitable, claim traders

    New Oshodi market unsuitable, claim traders

    Traders at Owonifari Electronic Market in Oshodi, Lagos, are still lamenting its’ demolition, 43 days after the exercise.

    Some of them told The Nation that the Isopakodowo Market allocated to them by the government is not good for their business.

    They said they could not operate there because they did not get shops on the ground floor.

    Many with heavy materials move to Arena Shopping Complex.

    Secretary to the Igbo Community of the market Chibuzo Shedrack said it is difficult for them to lift their heavy materials to the upper floor of the building.

    “After losing millions of naira to the demolished shops, some of us who try to raise money to continue our businesses found it difficult to cope. My goods, my cash, everything were in the demolished shop. As I speak, I have been taken back to square one. I lost about N40 million. You need to see the extent of what was lost in that market.

    “At the Arena market, things aren’t easy here. We are not allowed to take heavy duty machines here. It hasn’t been easy my brother,” Shedrack said.

    The market’s spokesman, Azomba Alphonsus, said he lost six shops at Owonifari market, adding that he had just stocked his shops before the demolition.

    The Isopakodowo Market does not match the demolished Owonifari market in terms of accessibility and convenience, he added.

    “For some of us that lost more than N50 million in the demolished market and are facing uncertainty in this new market, it is pathetic,” he said.

    Alphonsus implored Governor Akinwunmi Ambode to visit the market to appreciate their problem.

    Restating that the Isopakodowo Market was not built for them by the Babatunde Fashola administration, Alphonsus said: “When Fashola commissioned the Isopakodowo market on January 7, 2014, he said it was built for sawmillers, roadside traders and railway line traders. He also said he promised 50 Iyaloja 50 shops. That’s why they occupy the ground floor of the plaza. The upstairs doesn’t fit our kind of business, hence our earlier refusal to move to the place.”

    Lord Mayor of Igbo kingdom worldwide Leo Ezebuiro wondered why the government not wait for the traders to return from home after the Yuletide before demolishing the shops.

    Ezebuiro urged Ambode to compensate the traders.

  • ‘Danfo’ drivers, touts stab task force official at Oshodi

    ‘Danfo’ drivers, touts stab task force official at Oshodi

    COMMERCIAL bus drivers and touts yesterday at Oshodi allegedly stabbed Rilwan Oseni, a War Against Indiscipline (WAI) official with Lagos State Task Force on Environment and Special Offences, on his head and chopped off two of his fingers.

    The incident occurred when the task force impounded six commercial buses and arrested some drivers for allegedly obstructing traffic at Oshodi under bridge.

    The drivers and touts attacked police and paramilitary officers with broken bottles, cutlasses and other dangerous weapons to secure the release of the seized buses.

    Oseni was immediately rushed to a nearby hospital before he was transferred to Ikeja General Hospital.

    Police spokesperson Dolapo Badmos, a Superintendent of Police (SP), urged motorists to comply with traffic laws or face the consequences.

     

  • On Oshodi Market demolition

    Most people think there is only one market at Oshodi in Lagos and this market was in the first week of January demolished by the Lagos State government. There are actually more markets in this ever bustling place, each flowing into another. The one destroyed is known as Owonifari Electronics Market, located directly under the bridge of the Oshodi-Apapa Expressway. For some reason, up to 70% of the traders at the Owonifari Market are from Ihiala in Anambra State and environs. Therefore, I should have more than a passing interest in developments in the market, including its recent demolition. Indeed, I did play some role in the drama surrounding the market in the last two years.

    Towards the end of January 2014, leaders of the Owonifari Market Traders Association visited me in my residence in Lagos with a passionate plea that I speak to the then Lagos State governor, Babatunde Fashola, to postpone the impending demolition which had been planned since 2007 as part of the strategic effort to make Lagos a megacity. The government had reasoned that the open market was awfully located, right under the very busy Oshodi bridge with absolutely no safety facilities. If a tanker had over the years fallen from the bridge, as has in recent times become almost a common occurrence on the Ojuelegba bridge in Lagos, the fatalities would have been unimaginable because of the large number of traders. It had about 500 registered traders, but in reality there were some 2,000 traders at the Owonifari Electronics Market; each trader sublet his or her stall to three others.

    The Lagos State government did provide an alternative market but the traders rejected it for sundry reasons, including the fact that the structures are storey buildings, rather than bungalows which they preferred for ease of moving their goods. They were not persuaded by the explanation that land is a very scarce commodity in Lagos in view of the state’s small geographical size and the exponential growth rate of its population currently put at 21million. Nor were they interested in the argument that electronics dealers in bigger markets on Lagos Island have their stalls in storey buildings, to say nothing about manufacturers in China, Hong Kong, Singapore and elsewhere producing in high-rise buildings. I was to understand from Kalu Onuma, the efficient head of the Ndigbo Lagos secretariat, that the Igbo leadership in Lagos has for long been advising the market leaders unsuccessfully to drop their opposition to doing business in stalls located in storey buildings.

    Frankly, the leadership of the Owonifari Market is difficult. It hired the services of Ben Nwabueze, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria and Africa’s most engaging constitutional law scholar as well as the founding secretary general of Ohaneze Ndigbo, in their fight against market relocation. They quickly disagreed. The traders now turned to Jimoh Lasisi,  SAN, a fine gentleman.  He took a dispassionate look at their case and told them that the law was not in their favour, all the more so since the Land Use Act vested land ownership in the state governor. The traders had relied on a letter from an official of the Federal Ministry of Housing to argue that the state government had no right over them since they were operating under a Federal Government bridge. Jimoh asked them to look for a negotiated settlement. That was how they approached me. “These traders do not like the truth or professional advice, so I am surprised that they could meet someone like you”, Lasisi told me when I visited him in his office at Onipanu on Lagos Mainland.

    Immediately the governor set the February 14, 2014 date for a meeting with leaders of the Owonifari Market, I contacted, among other influential Igbo people in Lagos, the following persons to join us: Anya O. Anya, president of Ndigbo Lagos and a multi-award winning professor; President of Aka Ikenga, Goddy Uwazurike, a lawyer; Charles C. Ifeanyi, former deputy chairman of the Council of the Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry and former president of the Lagos State branch of the Association of Anambra Town Unions who retired from the Customs service as the number three man; Joe Anyigbo, the first African to become an executive director and later acting chief executive of the American petroleum giant, Chevron; Pat Utomi, a highly respected scholar at the Lagos Business School; and Emmanuel Chukwuneta, an engineer and entrepreneur, whose firm was instrumental to the building of the multibillion naira Lagos Trade Fair Complex. Since the meeting was taking place on the Valentine’s Day, my wife had to join us!

    Fashola, serious as ever, had assembled a large team of relevant permanent secretaries, commissioners and special advisers. The atmosphere of the meeting was convivial but certainly business-like. Those of us on the traders team went through the prepared speech once again and agreed on the prayers, but I was taken aback when the traders suggested that I plead with the governor not make any declaratory statement. I was actually infuriated. How could the governor be asked not to make a declaration at such an important meeting? The traders took the opportunity of my private audience with Fashola just a few minutes to the commencement of the meeting to request Chiefs Ifeanyi and Anyigbo, two highly respected traditional title holders in my Ihiala hometown and who are particularly close to me, to prevail on me to change my mind. They succeeded. I, therefore, found myself awkwardly pleading with the governor before this impressive audience not to make a declaratory statement. He must have felt embarrassed, but nevertheless obliged. He took copious notes of every speech.

    Fashola did ask the traders some soul-searching questions: “Do you think, in all honesty, that history will forgive me if a tanker loaded with petrol or kerosene or gas should fall down from the Oshodi bridge and wipe out thousands of you doing business under it? Many of you travel to China and other countries for business, but would you like your partners to visit your shops under the bridge? Would you like your children to join you in trading under the bridge after you have trained them in universities?” Rising to his feet as he was about to depart the hall, the governor added: “You have been in conversation with the state government for years over the relocation of the Owonifari Market without reaching an agreement. You are free to meet me anytime you want me. You have the telephone numbers of the Honourable Commissioner for the Environment, Mr Tunji Bello, and my Special Adviser on Communication and the Media, Mr Hakeem Bello”.

    Owonifari Market leaders left the meeting satisfied. But curiously none has bothered to take my phone calls or return them, let alone visit me, since the meeting. They all ignored my text messages about the need for a follow-up a meeting with the Lagos State govenment. On January 6, my wife called from Lagos while I was still holidaying in my hometown to break the news of the demolition of the Owonifari Electronics Market. Quite a number of the victims are my own relatives.

     

    • Adinuba is head of Discovery Public Affairs Consulting.
  • All is well

    All is well


    Delight played with shadows on the face of Abraham Lincoln as he walked into a knot of reporters. “Boys your troubles are now over,” he said memorably. “Mine have just begun.” The 16th president of the United States had to contend with a turbulent stewardship. The South rumbled with racial prejudice. The North puffed with the law. In between, Lincoln became statesman, general, arbiter and reconciler. He fought to weld a nation. In his triumph, he gained his people. Winning an election is often a big fight. But after the victory, the elected become almost like a new bride in the house. After winning her as a bachelor, you have to win her as a husband. Governor Akinwunmi Ambode found this as he tried to settle down as the helmsman of Lagos State, the alpha precinct of the nation. So, while he was reorganising the civil service, putting his men in office, and fleshing out a vision, two mighty bears growled into place in the city. Traffic went out of control. In Lagos, where traffic snarls, hoodlums gnarl. One monster mounts another on top of the hapless citizen. The underbelly of Lagos began turned a boiling room. The commercial hub was not only a place to make money for the creative and sublime. It is the spring of the artiste; the lowborn and the derelict can turn into saints and martyrs. It is also the platform that lifts the cunning into a hero, for the deranged to offer cure for sick. In Lagos, money scrunches and blares. It is Nigeria’s big bright Babylon. Hence as the elections came earlier in the year, a distorted narrative sprang up. The lofty doings of Governor Babatunde Raji Fashola fell into the mischief of a new narrative. If he did well by turning Lagos into a place of better, disciplined traffic, he became vilified as the terror who brought bribery and tyrants to the streets. If he curbed the flurry of gangsters who robbed and raped, he was the one who made Lagos into an emergency of blood-red villains as law enforcers. Ambode’s candidacy became framed as a continuation of Fashola’s tyranny. The okada riders fumed. The market women fulminated. The taxi driver grunted. Some tribes differed because of work to sanitise markets and neighbourhoods. They made Fashola into a burden on Ambode. In the end, Ambode prevailed with a cliffhanger after the PDP and Jimi Agbaje manipulated the fallacies into fact and minted false hopes. Governor Ambode played the conciliating husband after the wedding, and suddenly the bride accused him of holiness. We were in the terrain of hosanna today, crucify him tomorrow. So, by pouring scorn on the Lagos State Governor, they were actually indicting themselves and apologising for voting the way they did. It was teething lesson in governance. It is a good thing it has happened. And Lagosians and Nigerians now know that there is virtue in discipline. That Fashola was not wrong and Ambode is now right. He has released the men of LASTMA and police on the streets and the evidence is beginning to show. The husband is getting a good grip of the bride. The traffic problem has been like this always towards the end of the year, but it coincided with the teething days of the governor. That is what is called a double jeopardy. Some of the culprits have had his attention. Oshodi, for instance. In the past couple of weeks, it has eased, especially towards the late evenings. Before that, the yellow bus drivers hogged the road and waited to fill up before moving. All commuters were held hostage. Now, the police stand, gun in hand, in menacing duty. The buses are now coy. The Economist magazine furrowed many brows in its characterisation of Ambode. Writing in a sardonic style, its story fell short of its cherished promise of promoting liberalism and free market. It would have compared traffic in London to Lagos and how technology has been the fulcrum of the handling of modern traffic. It made no reference to suggested innovations. It just went on a free fall of prejudice, contradicting itself. It called for law and order and condemned it in Fashola’s era. Nothing tells the story of the traffic situation than Governor Ambode’s encounter with one of the offenders of Lagos traffic. Two Sundays ago while the governor was driving around town to see things for himself, a yellow bus hurtled towards him. It was driving on a one-way lane, against the rules. The governor stopped his car, stepped out, and confronted the driver. The picture was famous on the front pages of a few dailies. The driver walked out surprised to see the state’s first citizen. Governor Ambode asked him why he was violating the traffic law. All the driver did was to plead for forgiveness. He said he was heading for church and he had to take that route with his fellow churchgoers in order not lag behind the grace of God. Now this was typical Nigerian. He had sinned against heaven and against man. So, too, the churchgoers who tagged along. They did not give unto Caesar what was Caesar’s. If they did, they would have abided by the traffic law. They did not give unto God what is God’s. If they did, they would not have sinned against Caesar by violating the law of the land. No one will cavil at Ambode at election time or at any other time by railing at the virtue of enforcing discipline. By endorsing discipline now, Lagosians, including artisans, okada riders and peddlers of market chaos, have shown remorse at their own past ill grace. If Ambode had continued with the measures he inherited, they would have accused him of perpetuating tyranny. Early on, he would have been held hostage. This is liberating moment, an epiphany in discipline. Because of this important distraction, few have seen some of the capital things Ambode has done. Lagos today is the most active in infrastructure work in Nigeria, with work going on in a flurry in many parts from Mile 12 to Yaba to Ikorodu Road to Ipaja to Victoria Island. In his play, All is Well that Ends Well, Shakespeare dramatises two lovers that never begin well but end well. Some have called the play a tragedy and others comedy. Modern critics call it a “problem play” because it dances on a perilous border between laugh and cry. Ambode has somehow with the early problems nudged the city to the early cracks of a laugh by helping to make Lagosians vote for discipline over chaos. Added to this is his foray into technology to fight the mighty bears. For instance, the use of helicopters helps to locate and isolate traffic and criminals and fight them from the air. Now Governor Ambode has to figure out  how to make LASTMA incorruptible. 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  • Police arrest 37 urchins in Oshodi

    Police arrest 37 urchins in Oshodi

    Ten of the Rapid Response Squad in Lagos yesterday arrested 37 miscreants and five teenage in-traffic robbers in Oshodi.

    The teenage robbers were arrested following a tip-off by Mrs Abes Okechukwu, whose bag and phone was stolen by the gang at Oshodi Under Bridge.

    The boys are Ajala Lateef; Salami Sodiq; Raji Kazeem; Bashiru Adeyemi and Ikechukwu Ukueje.

    Confirming the robbery, Lateef, a secondary school dropout from Isale–Eko, said their ring leader, Taiye, still at large, disguised as a passenger and snatched Mrs Okechukwu’s bag and phone while she was boarding a bus.

    “I know Taiye very well. He sleeps in Oko–Mola at Oshodi Under Bridge. I have seen him on several occasions dispossessing passers-by in Oshodi of their bags, phones and other belongings. Most times, we pretend as passengers to rob people”, he stated.

    RRS Commander ACP Olatunji Disu said RRS would continue to work to make Lagos a haven for legitimate businesses.

    The suspects have been transferred to the State Investigation and Intelligence Bureau, Ikeja.

  • RRS raid Oshodi, arrest 42 miscreants

    RRS raid Oshodi, arrest 42 miscreants

    Operatives of the Rapid Response Squad (RRS) have raided many black spots within Lagos metropolis  arresting 37 miscreants and 5 teenagers, who are traffic robbers in Oshodi.

    The 5 teenage robbers were arrested around 9:00 pm based on tip off from one Mrs Okechukwu Abes, whose bag and phone the gang stole at Oshodi under Bridge.

    The boys are Ajala Lateef, 16; Raji Kazeem, 19; Bashiru Adeyemi, 19, Salami Sodiq and Ikechukwu Ukueje, 15 years respectively.

    Confirming the robbery, Ajala Lateef, a secondary school dropout from Isale – Eko, recounted how their ring leader, Taiye, still at large, pretended as a passenger and snatched Mrs Okechukwu’s bag and mobile phone while she was boarding a bus.

    “I know Taiye very well. He sleeps in Oko – Mola at Oshodi under Bridge. I have seen him in different occasion dispossessing passersby in Oshodi of their bags, phones and other belonging. Most times, we pretend as passengers to rob people,” Ajala recounted.

    The Commander of the RRS, Assistant Commissioner of Police, ACP Olatunji Disu said that RRS would continue to work round the clock to make Lagos a haven for those with legitimate businesses.

    Disu emphasized that the force has been charged by the Governor, Mr. Akinwunmi Ambode and Commissioner of Police, Fatai Owoseni to rid the state of all forms of crime.

    He therefore, called on citizens in the state to assist the police by supplying information that would help the police to curb crime and track down criminals adding that perpetrators of crime live among us.

    The suspects have been transferred to the State Investigation and Intelligence Bureau, Ikeja.

  • Table Tennis gold medal, a promise fulfilled – Oshodi

    Table Tennis gold medal, a promise fulfilled – Oshodi

    The President, Nigeria Table Tennis Federation, Enitan Waheed Oshodi says the victory over the Egyptian table tennis male team Sunday night was a dream come true.

    The Nigeria male table tennis team defeated their Egyptian counterpart 3-2 to clinch the gold medal at stake in the final watched by the DG NSC Mallam Al Hassan Yakmut, NOC President, Engineer Habu Gumel, Acting Chief de Mission, Peter Nelson  and  the Nigeria Tennis Federation boss, Engineer Sanni Ndanusa.

    Oshodi in a chat with SportingLife after the medal presentation at the Revolution Sports Complex ,Brazza having expressed his happinnes commended the players led by Segun Toriola described the effort of the team as awesome.

    According to an elated Oshodi, “When we came in board as NTTF, we promised that in two years I will regain the medal from Egypt and now it has happened, we have fulfilled our promise.You gave it to the boys Toriola and Quadri, they played wonderfully well to the admiration of everybody here, I think this was great”, he said.

    The former commissioner for Sport in Lagos continued,  “well, its not over yet because there are still five medals in the event and I hope to at least pick three more. We won’t allow this get into our head,the players return to training almost immediately so that our mission would be achieved.”

    Action resumes in the Male and female singles,doubles for male and female mixed doubles today at the same venue.