Oshodi demolition: “Isopakodowo market a death trap” – dislodged trader warns
“I’m still a young man and I have a wife and two children…I don’t want to die.”
Emmanuel is one of the estimated 5000 traders the Lagos State government dislodged from the Owonifari Market in Oshodi on Wednesday morning.
The government arranged to resettle them at nearby Isopakodowo Market originally used by people in the sawmill business.
Like many of the dislodged marketers, Emmanuel will not be moving into the new location now tagged “Oshodi Resettlement Market.”
READ: Fear, anger as Ambode orders demolition of Oshodi market
“It’s a death trap,” he told NewsroomNG after our correspondent found him at Arena Market, the “settlement” he’s opted for.
“That place did not collapsed when they were constructing it, it actually sank! It sank! Can you hear me? People died there when it happened.
“The place collapsed with no load on it. What will happen when we bring in our heavy products and gadgets and people there? Tell me, what will happen?
“If the government value our lives they would not tell us to relocate there,” he said.
NewsroomNG gathered that part of the old Isopakodowo Market caved in when it was being reconstructed in April 2010.
About 10 workers were reportedly trapped in its wreckage. According to reports, four of these innocent souls didn’t make it out alive.
The fear of this happening again, we gathered, is a major reason the dislodged traders are reluctant to take the government’s offer.
Aside this, we gathered there’s a ownership tussle over the Oshodi Resettlement Market as the original owners are said to have locked up the place and placed a curse on it.
READ: You’ll love what we’ll make of demolished Oshodi market – Ambode
When NewsroomNG visited the market on Wednesday, we saw no one moving in there.
Some traders told us they cannot event afford the cost of moving in there.
“We are asked to pay an initial N300,000 before moving in,” one trader told us.
He said:
We will then have to pay N50,000 monthly accumulating to N3 million before we can call the place our own. How can you remove me from a place that lawfully belongs to me and settle me on another man’s land where I’m a mere tenant?
We have not been able to confirm his claim from the other parties..
