Operatives of the Lagos State Environmental Sanitation and Special Offences (Taskforce) Unit in collaboration with Lagos State Environmental Sanitation Corps (LAGESC) Tuesday dislodged over 1500 illegal street traders and arrested 15 of them for prosecution during an enforcement operation at Oyingbo.
The operation which was led by the Task force Chairman, Mr. Olayinka Egbeyemi, a Chief Superintendent of Police, is in continuation of the clampdown on all illegal street-trading activities across the State by the Lagos State Task Force.
Egbeyemi, according to a statement from the Agency, said the traders persisted in their illegal trading activities, despite several warnings, displaying and selling wares on main roads, medians, road-setbacks, drainage alignments as well as railway tracks around the entire Oyingbo market area.
He said the action of the traders impeded the free flow of traffic along the axis, insisting that Lagos State government will not tolerate such illegal activities that violate the environmental laws of the State.
“Section (1) of the Lagos State Street Trading and Illegal Market Prohibition Law of 2003 prohibits both buyers and sellers from engaging in business activities at an unauthorised place, while the penalty for engaging in illegal street-trading is a fine of N90,000 or six-month jail term for anyone found guilty of contravening the law”, the chairman said.
“The enforcement operation was also meant to protect lives of the illegal traders from unforeseen circumstances such as accident from reckless private/commercial drivers and also to decongest traffic gridlock along that axis”, he added.
While warning those engaged in illegal street-trading to desist from endangering their lives and operate inside the ‘Oyingbo Ultra-Modern Market’ built by the Lagos State Government, Egbeyemi disclosed that all the 15 illegal traders arrested during the exercise will be charged to court for prosecution.
The women’s leader of the popular Oyingbo Market on Lagos Mainland, Alhaja Basirat Balogun, yesterday appealed to Governor Akinwunmi Ambode to hand over the new market complex to traders.
She told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) that the handing over was long overdue since the market was inaugurated in March.
She lamented that ex-Governor Babatunde Fashola could not fulfil his promise to hand over the complex before leaving office.
“Fashola delivered on his campaign promise to build the market and we are happy, but we do not know why he could not handover the market to us after it was commissioned. We complained to the Lagos State Ministry of Works and Infrastructure which promised that Governor Fashola was going to hand it over.
“My market members have been asking questions on when they would move into the shops; some of them feel so disappointed. We want the new administration to officially hand the market over to us,” she said.
The market leader, however, said that lack of adequate drainage channels around the entire market was causing flooding whenever it rained.
She appealed to Ambode to construct drainage channels around the market to avert flooding.
NAN, however, learnt that Fashola could not hand over the market before his exit because of incomplete documentation.
The complex has 902 lock-up shops, 49 open offices and 134 toilets.
Other facilities in the complex include 150-capacity car park, water, sewage and refuse treatment plants, fire safety gadgets, heavy duty generators and six gate houses, among others.
After years of yearning for a modern market, traders at Oyingbo Market in Lagos Mainland Local Government Area of Lagos State have expressed their joy and gratitude to Governor Babatunde Fashola (SAN) for rebuilding the market.
The traders adorned in their colourful dresses during the inauguration of the market by Governor Fashola, who they praised for his development programmes.
Oyingbo Market was established in the 1920s. Then, it was a depot for agricultural produce. The development around Ebute-Metta, Oyingbo and the Lagos Mainland have had positive impact on the market; making it grow bigger not only in size but also in the volume of goods available in the market.
In the 1930s, traders around Apapa Road were moved to the current location to further boost the size of the market, even as meat and livestock were among the goods available for customers. As a major commercial centre, it attracted customers’ patronage from every part of Nigeria.
Ever since, there have been attempts to re-build the market which was constructed with wood, has been gutted by fire several times.
Successive administrations had made efforts to rebuild the market without any success.
In 1991, the then Chairman of Lagos Island Local Government Area, Mr Babatunde Larinde demolished the market in a bid to rebuild it through partnership with the private sector. He invited the late business Mogul Chief M. K.O. Abiola to lay the foundation of the new market. Chief Abiola had promised to help attract the attention of the Nigeria Stock Exchange (NSE) to raise the needed funds for the project.
However, during his campaigns as the governorship candidate of the then Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), the leader of the market, Alhaja Bashirat Balogun, appealed to Mr. Fashola to assist in rebuilding the market when voted into power.
The Commissioner for Works and Infrastructure, Dr Kadiri Hamzat recalled that Oyingbo Market has existed for a long period of time, adding that in spite of its tremendous growth and expansion over the years, it remained mostly at the level of underdevelopment.
“Growing far beyond the plans available, Oyingbo Market needed to be renovated or rebuilt in line with current realities.
“The local government’s estimated that rebuilding the market will cost NI00 million.
“This failed to deliver a first-class market that the city can be proud of. Several strategies were evolved until Governor Fashola decided on the best strategy. The contract for rebuilding the market was finally awarded to Messrs Palmyra Construction Nigeria Limited. It was built on a 504 square meters land,’’ he said.
The Commissioner added that the market has all the features of a modern market that meets international standards.
In her remarks, the Iyaloja of Oyingbo Market, Alhaja Balogun commended Governor Fashola for his excellent performance in the state in the past eight years in the areas of infrastructure development, saying the Governor had, within his tenure, lifted Lagos to become a reference point for other state.
•Governor Fashola commissioning the new Oyingbo market
Commissioning the market, Governor Fashola said he made a promise to rebuild it in 2007 during his electioneering campaigns, adding that he had fulfilled his promise by delivering the project.
The governor further said that out of the 633 open shops in the market, 618 would be allocated to the original owners who were displaced when the market was gutted by fire and had to be rebuilt.
According to him, with the new market in place, the state government expected that roadside trading would end in Oyingbo as they could not use the market for their business.
“You all know I am not seeking any political office this time, but I cannot forget that some of you voted for me. I am here today to keep my word,’’ he said. The governor urged the traders to continue to vote to for candidates of the All Progressives Congress (APC) for more development.
The market comprises four floor, a car park that can contain 150 cars, 622 lock-up shops, type one and 102 lock-up shops type two; industrial borehole, water treatment plant, cold room, sewage treatment plant, ground and overhead water tanks,1,000KVA transformers, closed-circuit monitor and 134 toilets facilities.
•It is a testament to Governor Fashola’s pact with the people
It was yet another promise kept when on March 15 Governor Babatunde Fashola of Lagos State commissioned the N1billion ultra-modern Oyingbo Market Complex, 24 years after it was demolished for reconstruction. Reconstruction of the market was one of the governor’s campaign promises in 2007 when he was seeking the mandate of Lagosians to be governor. An elated Fashola said at the commissioning, “I held my promise in high esteem … New Oyingbo market is one of my promises and it is here today and more modern than what used to be here. I was not too young to know the old Oyingbo Market because my mother used to sell aluminum pans somewhere around here.”
Efforts to rebuild the market started about 24 years ago. Although the market was demolished then, one thing led to another and nothing happened again until Fashola came to the scene in 2007. The market dates back to the 1920s when it was a depot for agricultural produce. However, it began to expand with development around Ebute-Metta, Oyingbo and the Lagos Mainland, generally. The saying that oja Oyingbo ko mo p’enikan o wa (Oyingbo Market does not know if anyone is absent) is a tribute to its sheer size which also made it an important market across the country.
In a sense therefore, Governor Fashola’s commissioning of the market is beyond fulfilling a campaign promise. Oyingbo Market is a monument. The market has become folklore of sort. Therefore, what Fashola did was not just honouring an agreement; it was also a pact with culture. As the governor noted at the commissioning, his mother was once a trader in the old market from where the ultra-modern one has sprung up. So it was with many other people who can now look back with nostalgia and marvel at the wonder that the market has become.
The four-floor Oyingbo Market is modernity personified. Sitting majestically on a 544 sq metre, it has a 150-car parking lot on the ground floor, 622 open shops, 102 lock-up shops, 48 open offices, 134 toilets and six exit gates. The market also has an air-cooling system, cold room, industrial borehole, water treatment plant, refuse chute, sewage treatment plant, ground and overhead water tanks, fire protection as well as 100 KVA transformers, two 1250 KVA generators and a 100KVA generator as well as fire alarm system/smoke detector.
However, as the Iyaloja of Oyingbo and the Mainland, Basirat Balogun, said at the commissioning, the state government still has some work to do to fully bring out the beauty of the new edifice. The surrounding of the market has to be tidied up, with more attention paid to environmental issues. The drainage in the area has to be expanded and kept free of garbage to allow for unhindered flow of water. In the same vein, the government must ensure that maintenance is given priority because that is the bane of many public institutions in the country. The government also has to ensure that security is tightened in the area now that the market has become a one-stop shop for all items.
We congratulate Governor Fashola for keeping to his campaign promise because it is not often that politicians do that in our part of the world. We also congratulate the original occupants of the market who are still alive to witness the commissioning for their patience which would soon pay off as they are to be given priority in the allocation of the shops. They should heed the governor’s advice to leave the road now that the market is ready so as to free the traffic logjam that has become a permanent feature when construction work was ongoing in the market.
As work on the Oyingbo Market nears completion, many traders are apprehensive that they may not be able to afford the rent. TAIBAT IDOWU writes.
Gradually, the pouplar Oyingbo market in Lagos Mainland is beginning to wear a new look. The construction of shops in the market started about five years ago in fulfilment of Governor Babatunde Fashola’s plan to stop street trading.
But the traders are afraid that they may not be able to afford the rent for the shop.
According to some of them, the rent will be for people who are in the millionaire’s club.
A petty trader, Mrs. Risikat Kudiri, said: “We are poor but our prayer is that we should have money so that we can also benefit from the work of the state government. We are appealing to the government to consider those of us who are petty traders when the market is ready.”
Similarly, the fears of Mrs. Badejo Kudirat, another trader is that the shops are not designed to accommodate people like her. She said the government should also consider those who do not have money. “It is not meant for everybody, it is for those that have money and I don’t have the kind of money the government will be asking for. I heard they are going to give the shops out for rent at N1 million. I pray God should provide another place for me to do my business,” she said.
Mrs. Idiat Lawal, who is also a trader in the market, lamented that the government will give the shops to those who have the millions, adding that petty traders like her are not in the thinking of the government. “We are told the rent for a shop will be N1million each. Is it me that is selling onions, cray fish and okro that will rent a shop for N1 million? I don’t think I am one of the people that the government is targeting. It is a polite way of asking us to go back to our villages,” she said.
While some traders are still waiting to see which direction the pendulum swings, others have started showing interest in the new shops.
For some other market women, it is not only the fear of rent they have to contend with but the fact they have to be climbing up and down the stairs which they are not used to.
According to them, they expected the government to build small shops on the land but were shocked to see storey buildings.
Mrs. Sherifat Aremu, a trader in the market, said the government promised to build stalls for them initially, but now they are building story buildings. “Is it inside this mighty building that I will be selling my okro, palm oil, grand nut oil, salt and other petty things? How many customers will climb the stairs to patronise me? We are pleading with the government to please build the normal stalls we are used to so that our customers can continue to patronize us.”
Mrs. Kemi Atanda said Oyingbo market has existed for many decades and it has been associated with the masses. For this reason, the government should let the ‘common people’ pay for the shops instalmentally. “ we learnt it is going to be on the high side, but I think it shouldn’t be”.
According to one of the contractors working on the site, the state government has not decided on how much it will let out the property to traders. “We have not reached the level of putting monetary value to the shops. What we are doing at the moment is building the shops to standard. I assure you that the state government will be considerate in allocating the shops. The renovation exercise was carried out in the interest of the traders in the first place; therefore, the state government will not heap burden on their necks.
