70 Shops Pulled Down In Ojokoro

More than seventy shops and stalls have been destroyed by a bulldozer at the Kola market at Kolington Bus Stop in Ojokoro Local Council Development Area, Lagos State.

The shops were destroyed on the orders of the Chairman of the council, Mr. Benjamin Adeyemi Olabinjo, who told P.M.NEWS that a modern market was being planned for the area.

Some of the affected traders were, however, not happy with the decision of the Ojokoro council boss to build a modern market under high tension wires.

To them, Olabinjo should look for a more suitable place to site his modern market instead of building it under high tension wires and endangering the lives of the people.

“Putting up a market under PHCN high tension wires is not ideal. We don’t want any fire incident in this place. We have written several letters to the council chairman to look for space elsewhere to build the market but all to no avail,” Ropo Adeyemi, a businessman in Ojokoro told P.M.NEWS.

Some of the affected shop owners also condemned the manner they were sent packing, adding that the council boss engaged area boys who beat them and looted their shops.

“My shop was broken into in the night by area boys and my wares looted. The following day I came to the market and found a caterpillar bulldozing the shops,” Mrs. Adijatu Bamisile, another affected trader, lamented.

She accused the council boss of planning to dispossess them of their shops and allocating them to his cronies.

When P.M.NEWS visited the area, a caterpillar was seen pulling down the shops and stalls.

The Ojokoro councilboss had earlier told our reporter that the area was being cleared for a modern market being planned by the council.