Ogun monarch orders demolition of shops, traders kick

Some traders at the Isheri market in the Isheri-Mole area of Ifo Local Government Area of Ogun State are at loggerheads with the monarch of the community, Oba Sulaiman Bamgbade, over the demolition of some shops and warehouses in the market on Wednesday.

According Metro gathered from some of the traders that the monarch had ordered the demolition because he claimed that the government, through an SDG programme, wanted to situate a general hospital, community hall and a police station in the community which the demolished area had been earmarked for.

Our correspondent, who visited the scene of the demolition on Wednesday, observed that as the demolition was going on, some of the traders struggled to pack what was left of their goods while some scavengers were seen packing the debris of the demolished building. Also, operatives of the Ogun State Security and Safety Corps codenamed So-Safe were seen with arms monitoring the demolition to prevent the breakdown of law and order.

A trader in the community, Muhammed Musa, lamented that he had lost property and goods worth millions of naira to the demolition which came as a shock to him. He alleged that the monarch was just being mean to non-indigenous traders within the market which was why most of the shops demolished were belonged to the non-indigenes.

Musa said, “We are not contesting the ownership of the land with the community. The land was leased to us for a 70-year period which we have only spent 20 years here. At the time that we came here, this land was a swampy area and now, we have invested a lot of money to make it a better place like this with the hope of recuperating our investment.

“I have two shops in this market which were leased to me. We got a notice of the demolition some days ago and we were given seven days to evacuate the shops. The seven days were supposed to elapse tomorrow (Thursday) but very early this morning, we saw a bulldozer and some miscreants who invaded the market and they began the demolition.

“Now that this place has become a booming market, the king thought it was appropriate to demolish our shops. We are just being cautious of not undermining the peace of the community because if we had resisted the demolition, it might have led to anarchy and we do not want to be labelled as disrupting the peace of the community.”

A warehouse owner in the market, Abayomi Elu, lamented that he had lost property and equipment worth hundreds of millions as he had only got the notice of the demolition some days ago. He said all his efforts to reach out to the monarch for a possible way of resolving the matter were not yielded by the monarch only for him to wake up this morning to the scene of the demolition.

He stressed that every property owner within the demolished part of the market is a legal occupant who keyed into the development plan of a late monarch of the community to develop the once swampy area into the modern market that it has become.

Elu added, “I am seriously affected and I see this as a slap on the law and my fundamental rights to own a property. This land was leased to us some 20 years ago for a sixty-year period which has not elapsed. If there is a need for development, it should not be at the expense of the legitimate traders who are also contributing to the development of the community.”

He noted that a legal action would be instituted against the monarch over what he termed ‘highhandedness and abuse of power’.

“The next line of action is that I will seek legal redress in court. The king cannot take laws into his own hands. I have briefed my lawyer,” Elu concluded.

Meanwhile, a trader whose shop was also demolished but did not want his name on print alleged that the nonchalant attitude of the property owners in the market to quickly address the situation before the demolition was carried out put some of the traders who were third-party shopowners into the situation. He noted that though there was no official notice before the notice given to them some days ago, there had been insinuations concerning the demolition for some months.

Another trader whose shop was not affected said the demolition was a welcome development because the proposed hospital, police post and town hall would also aid the development of the community.

The trader said, “It is a good thing because what we heard that the government wants to construct there will also aid the development of the community.”

When contacted, Oba Bamgbade noted that he was acting in the interest of the community and that those who were raising issues were people who did not want the development of the community. He stressed that there were no documents to prove that the late monarch had leased the place to the traders.

“The matter is already in court. What happened was that the late monarch that they were referring to set up a committee to see to the community’s development at that time but someone among the committee members was the one who took advantage to perpetrate the leasing. We have instituted a case against the person to which the traders are also a party. They are illegal occupants.

“I aim to see to the development of the community by facilitating access to basic needs for my people. Those who do not want the development are the ones raising concerns and they are mostly non-indigenes,” Bamgbade concluded.