Igbo traders cry out over eviction at Alaba market

LAGOS — Igbo Traders in Alaba International Market, under the aegis of New Site Shopping Mall and Warehouse Section, have cried out over the alleged illegal eviction from a property under litigation. The traders, in a petition by their chairman, Eze Ezebuadi and Secretary, Ikechukwu Umeuhabike, called on the Inspector General of the Police, Mr. Idris Ibrahim to give them protection over the use of armed thugs and suspected members of the Oodua Peoples Congress, OPC, to violently chase them away from the property, the subject matter of a suit pending before a Lagos High Court, sitting in Badagry. In the petition, the traders claimed that they purchased the land, 48 plots at Alaba International Market Annex, Alaba-Rago, Ojo, sometime in 2008, from the original owners, Omo Eleduwa family of Kemberi and Adetona Cambell family. According to the petitioners, they have been using the parcel of land as park, where their containers are discharged and goods sold to the customers until 2010, when one Almotson Nigeria Limited, led by one Akande surfaced and claimed that the state government gave them Certificate of Occupancy, C of O, in respect of the same land. “In November 2015, Amotson Nigeria Limited filled a law suit at the state High Court sitting in Badagry, claiming that we the traders trespassed on the land. On June 13, 2016, the trial judge, Justice Bola Okikiolu-Ighile refused the application of injection sought by the claimant and ordered accelerated hearing of the matter..” The aggrieved traders had earlier, through their counsel Mr. Toyin Keshinro, in a pre-action notice sent to the state Attorney General, Mr. Kazeem Adeniji complained how the officials of the state Ministry of Environment at the instance of Almotson Nigeria Limited, invaded the property and carried out the illegal demolition of the property, in flagrant disobedience to the court order that refused to restain the traders from the property. Meanwhile, the Inspector General of Police has directed the Assistant Inspector General of Police in-Charge of Zone 2 to carry out a thorough investigation of the complaints of the traders to avert bloodshed and potential clash between Igbo and Yoruba traders in the market.