Following the hue and cry over demolition of
the popular Owonifari Electronic Market loop
at Oshodi, the Lagos State government has
said that the market had to go following its
security threats to residents of the state.
State Commissioner for Information and
Strategy, Steve Ayorinde, at an inter
ministerial chat with reporters on Thursday,
said that the demolition exercise on Tuesday
and Wednesday actually confirmed some of
their fears, “as we discovered concrete bunker
and arms underneath the shops.”
The government said though the matter of
relocation had been on for about 10 years,
recent intelligence report and criminal
activities around Oshodi during the festive
season, informed the drastic action of the state
government.
The government said plans were already in
top gear to begin the construction of a world-
class bus terminus in the loop.
It would be recalled that bulldozers swung
into action late Tuesday night, destroying over
1000 shops in the Owonifari loop following a
quit notice served to the occupants on
December 21, 2015.
Contrary to the claims that the 16-day notice
order was too short, Ayorinde said that the
issue dated back to 10 years, with back and
forth negotiations held with leadership of the
market on relocation to a larger Isopakodowo
market about 200 metres from the demolished
site.
He stressed that the move was in the best
interest of everyone, adding that the state
government could not have been more
magnanimous with the conditions of the new
market and the rate at which the new shops
were rented out.
Ayorinde, however, said while markets would
always be in Oshodi, some illegal structures
already marked by the state government
would have to be demolished to make way for
traffic free-flow and crime-free Oshodi axis.
He said: “Government, I should say, will not
be blackmailed because we had done
everything humanly possible and you know
that the hallmark of this government has been
compassion. It is a compassionate
government.
“The intention was not to destroy the market
or destroy properties or to make life
inconvenient for them. We believe very
strongly that Isopakodowo market is quite
ideal; its a lot bigger store-per-store than
where they had been removed now and the
aim of government, as we stated earlier, is to
ensure that that area of the market conforms
with the type of image that we want Lagos to
be, which is to return sanity to the place, to
beautify the market, to construct a world class
bus terminus around that place and to ensure
that people who use that place on a daily basis
– the commuters, traders, everybody enjoy
what it means to go to a market in a mega
city.
“We also believe that the exercise will largely
reduce the gridlock that is associated with that
area and then the criminalities that were
rampant in that Oshodi. What we have done is
in the interest of the generality of Lagosians,”
Ayorinde said.
The commissioner said that the government
had already commenced the fencing-off of the
set-back on Agege Motor Road that stretches
from Ilupeju end of Oshodi all the way to the
PWD/Ikeja GRA end of the area.
Ayorinde said the ongoing fencing-off and
beautification of the road set-back from
Ilupeju bypass to PWD/Ikeja GRA would
constitute the first phase of the transformation
of the Oshodi area.
The second phase, he added, would begin
from PWD/Ikeja GRA and stretch all the way
to Agege/Pen cinema axis.
Commissioner for the Environment, Dr.
Babatunde Adejare, said contrary to claims in
some quarters, none of the occupants’
properties was destroyed in the demolition
exercise.
“On Tuesday night, we found that all the
occupants have complied and moved to the
new market. The only one that remained
actually called us to say that he was in the East
burying his late mother. For that one, we had
to evacuate his properties and they are safe
with us. So, nothing was destroyed in the
exercise.”
Adejare added that the governor had been so
magnanimous to have allowed the shop
owners acquire new shops in Isopakodowo
market at N5,000 in a place like Oshodi.
“There is nowhere in Lagos where you will be
paying N5, 000 per shop not to talk of the
central Oshodi, but the governor agreed with
them and we said we were ready to concede
after which we now formally served them
with a quit notice through the office of the
Commissioner for Physical Planning and
Urban Development,” he said.

http://www.ngrguardiannews.com/2016/01/bunker-arms-discovered-under-shops-at-demolished-oshodi-market/

And nobody took pictures. When the time is ripe, we will respond to this wanton senseless destruction

I'll be back.

Am coming....

I came to see pictures and not to read that long novel

And there is no picture of that sir?