Let There Be Peace At Ladipo Market

Violence erupted again last week at the Agui Ironsi International Trade Centre, Ladipo Market, Mushin. During the fracas, armed thugs attacked the chairman of Mushin Local Government Council, Mr. Babatunde Adepitan along with other traders who sustained severe injuries and are currently receiving treatment in various hospitals.

The popular market has been a theatre of bloody clashes between loyalists of the former leader of the market, Chief Jonathan Okoli and traders opposed to his sit-tight disposition after his tenure elapsed two years ago.

In order to end the crisis, which has led to the formation of several factions jostling to take over the leadership of the market, the Lagos State Government summoned a meeting through the Ministry of the Environment between the warring factions and Okoli. But Okoli backed out of the peace deal and dragged the state government to court, insisting that he won’t be part of any peace deal that does not retain him as leader of the market.

To restore law and order permanently at the popular market, the government must put its foot down and insist that sanity prevails. A situation where armed thugs allegedly hired from the eastern part of the country by one of the embattled leaders of the market to Lagos to cause mayhem is totally unacceptable.

Traders raised an alarm again at the weekend that thugs who tied red scarf around their heads, wielded guns, cutlasses and axes inside the market.

Government must not allow an individual or a group of individuals to disrupt the peace that has prevailed in the state for long. It is embarrassing that ordinary thugs were able to chase away law enforcement agents from the market last week when fracas broke out there.

It sends a wrong signal that outlaws could hold innocent citizens and even trained law enforcement personnel to ransom and get away with it. Government must come down hard on all those who are behind the Ladipo Market crisis.

If the Lagos State government allows this state of anarchy to persist, it may spill over to the larger society, disrupt the existing peace and paralyse economic activities in the state.

The Lagos State Police Command whose personnel usually engage in an unbridled and unnecessary show of brute force while confronting unarmed activists during peaceful rallies now has a job to do: It should send its personnel to Ladipo Market to flush out the armed thugs and restore law and order now. Whoever is not ready to allow peace to prevail should be arrested and prosecuted forthwith.