Mile 12 Traders Threaten Showdown Over Leadership

Traders at the Mile 12 Market in Ketu, Lagos, have threatened to shut down the market to protest what they called plans by the Ikosi-Isheri Council to impose a new leadership on them.

Some of the traders told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) that they would resist any attempt to impose a new leadership on the Perishable Commodities Section of the market. Explaining the stand of the traders , the Financial Secretary of the traders’ association (Perishable Commodities Section) Alhaji Sheu Usman, said: “We are capable of selecting our leaders.

“We may need a new leader, but certainly not by imposing a stranger on us.

“There is no crisis in the association. Any attempt to impose any new leadership will be resisted.”

According to him, all the sectional associations are fully behind the current chairman, Haruna Mohammed.

“All the associations in the various sections, tomatoes, onions, dried pepper, okro and others, are behind the current chairman, Haruna Mohammed,” Usman told NAN.

Contacted for his comment, the Chairman of Ikosi-Iseri Local Council Development Area, Mr. Abdulfatai Oyesayan, said the Mohammed-led executive was a caretaker committee put in place about six years ago.

“The committee was inaugurated following a House of Assembly’s recommendation.

“And the recommendation still subsists. The association is the council’s revenue agent whose yearly agreement lapsed in December 2011.

“There is no agreement yet in 2012; so the council has the right to put in place a new executive and re-organise the association,” he told NAN.

Meanwhile, the police have deployed an Armoured Personnel Carrier and anti-riot policemen to the market to prevent a breakdown of law and order.