The Lagos State Building Control Agency (LASBCA) has debunked claims that shop owners at the popular Alaba International Market paid N6m to the state on Thursday, stressing that the money was not paid to her agency.

Alaba traders had claimed to have paid N6m to Lagos on Thursday to Lagos State, and the government demolished their shops on Sunday.

On Sunday, the Lagos government commenced the demolition of several buildings at the multi-billion naira Alaba International Market — a development that left many shop owners in limbo.

Public relations officer of LASBCA, Tayo Asagba, reiterated that the buildings were distressed and that the shop owners had been notified since 2016.

“The building was distressed, so we do not need to collect consolidated payments,” Asagba said.

When Apple's Bite visited the market on Tuesday morning, many of the affected shop owners were moody.

“Leave here immediately.”

“I am not disposed to talk.”

“What would talking change?”

“I need to make money now — not talk.”

“You can see that everyone is in distress.”

These were comments from some affected shop owners when our reporter met them at the market.

The Lagos government said the demolished buildings “were distressed”.

Gbolahan Oki, general manager of the Lagos State Building Control Agency (LASBCA), last Friday, said some of the buildings had been marked with quit notice since 2016, adding that occupants usually “harass officials of the agency whenever they want to carry out their duties”.

But Calistus Ezenwa, an affected trader along the Alaba Rago/Ojo Alaba axis, with a noticeably shaky voice, said most of the traders were not aware of the notice.

The demolition site

“I do not know what to say. In fact, I am short of words because in this kind of situation, even if they wanted to demolish the buildings, they should have at least given us two months so that we can gather ourselves and get another shop,” Ezenwa said.

“It was just a few weeks ago that they gave us notice to park out of our shops. Now, everybody is scattered. Coming out to the market right now is just for fancy. I have no plans yet. It is not fair.”

“I was in the market seven years ago and I did not hear about it (the quit notice).”

On his part, John Nebonta, another affected shop owner, claimed the traders were served a notice on June 1.

Nebonta also noted that he had been doing business in the market since 2016 and “there was no notice of such”.

According to him, he was asked to pay N70,000 tax to the state government three days before the demolition

“They (LASBCA) gave us a 7-day ultimatum on June 1, 2023. After one week, the market leadership taxed each shop N70,000. I paid. We went to Alausa to report to the authorities,” Nebonta said.

“They said they would give us state government accounts to pay the fee, and that we should pay in instalments; not knowing they had an ulterior motive. So we contributed N70,000 each and we were able to raise about N6,022,942 on Thursday last week.”

Speaking further, Nebonta said there are rumours that private developers intend to use the land where the shops were demolished for a new trade complex named “New Alaba”.

“The problem started when some people came to develop that place. They even brought a catalogue to that effect. They called it the new Alaba, and the prices of shops were on the catalogue. They even came with forms for people to buy stores in the plaza to be built behind us,” he said.

Corroborating Nebonta’s claim, David Ezeanya, another trader, said the demolition exercise was to fast-track the process of constructing the new edifice.

“They are about to sell the land. The exercise was just to pass it from the old hands to new hands,” he said.

“I bought my shop and an empty land. I have not built a structure on the empty land.”

For John Emeka, the experience of having his goods and the shop demolished remains an ugly one.

“We thought it was a joke. What really affected us was the lack of information. We lacked serious information from the government,” he said.

“We did not know it would be serious. But to our surprise, they gave us a seven-day ultimatum.

“We were surprised to see that that on Sunday morning, bulldozers came and pulled down our building.”

The receipt said to have been issued by Lagos after the first instalment of N4.46 million was paid to the state account on Thursday

Receipt of the second payment of N1.56 million

Another trader who simply identified himself as Moses also said some amount of money was “paid to LASBCA” on Thursday.

“So many of us own the shop and we still paid the local government this year. We can not fight the government but I am thankful I was able to pull out my goods. For now, I am just hanging around,” he said.

Speaking on the matter, Udenkwo Nnamdi, first vice-chairman, Fancy and Furniture Dealers Association, Ojo Alaba market, said his members did not bargain for a demolition.

“All these tenants are paying tenement rate; they are paying an allocation to the local government. So, if it is an illegal structure, the local government would not have been collecting such fees from us,” he said.

During a press briefing on Tuesday, Mbonu Geoffrey, president-general of the Alaba International Amalgamated Association, said he is not aware of any plot by some developers to demolish the structures.

“The information reaching us is that they have fliers and the prototype of what they want to do,” Geoffrey said.

“Maybe the portion of that land was not enough to build that gigantic project, so they approached the state government to acquire more land. There are some foundations down there where the owners of the land attempted to protect their lands from the developers.

“In the notice sent to us, 2016 was not mentioned. If they gave us notice in 2016, Who did they give it to? Who did they serve it to? What stopped them from indicating that they had given us notice since 2016?

“One thing is sure, you cannot bring down my building and take over my land. There must be a process. We are watching to see if these buildings being pulled down by an agency is based on the condition of the buildings.

“So, what about the land? If there is any project that the developer has come to put in Alaba that makes them take over our land, we will know.”

https://applesbite.com/no-money-was-paid-for-alaba-demolition-lasbca-reacts-over-n6m-payment-claims/


Fri, June 23, www.applesbite.com

Lol someone paying his or her Taxes don automatically turn to money paid to the Govt in other not to get dere building demolished....


Na Revenue dem pay nd moreover how many building was demolished shey na only the demolished building pay the money....

Who owns the demolished buildings? Pls these people should stop sounding always as if they don't like their progress in Lagos

When their children who they failed to train make noise online I laugh at their stupidity

Same Alaba Igbos that Iyana Iba and okomaiko locals force to pay money for passing some makeshift bridge...


Rinu Oduala, Mr Macaroni, Falz the bad guy won't suffer the consiquences their stupidity


.

inoki247:
Lol someone paying his or her Taxes don automatically turn to money paid to the Govt in other not to get dere building demolished....


Na Revenue dem pay nd moreover how many building was demolished shey na only the demolished building pay the money....

So they pay taxes.......I thought they don't pay taxes.

Ofunaofu:


So they pay taxes.......I thought they don't pay taxes.

That's your problem you can choose not to pay in any state you have your shop...


The owners of the building are not even crying nor Playing the victim card with the building cos they know dey broke the Law na people wey be tenant come dey cry pass....

Their man power is a source of wealth for south west. .Abeg. .

come to ogun state and build another Alaba market..from there migrate to oyo state..

oyebanji44:
Their man power is a source of wealth for south west. .Abeg. .

come to ogun state and build another Alaba market..from there migrate to oyo state..

So who should we believe but tye lagos state payment receipt was attached

After that they should come and create another Alaba market in Osun state

Ajagunakin:
After that they should come and create another Alaba market in Osun state

How people are in Osun state? I asked because most of the Agberos in Lagos are from Osun and Oyo states. So, how many people are left in Osun?

Pandora people are sick

Na dem develop everywhere but Ordinary Tax dem no gree pay. Dem hear say dem wan demolish dilapidated buildings come go rush pay tax wen dem owe. Unfortunately, their building still go down.

Some of those people are born to lie in life, not surprised

Chaos, propaganda and lies are all they are known for.

Very ill-mannered people.

And they keep passing this nonsense trait from generation to generation