Ogunpa Market demolition

Gbenro Adesina/Ibadan

The demolishing caterpillar of Governor Abiola Ajimobi today struck at Ogunpa market as it destroyed thousands of shops. The demolishing team stormed the market in the company of tight security provided by armed men of Nigeria Civil Defence.

The demolishing team did not give the traders opportunity to park their wares as they destroyed them alongside the shops.

According to one of the demolishing team members who spoke with the magazine under anonymity, “We cant give them any chance to park their wares because they have been given enough chance. We have served them notice for a very long time that we are coming to carry out the exercise. In fact for your information, this exercise ought to have been carried out since last year December but because they begged the government to allow them sell for the Christmas and New Year, we were asked to hold on until now that we are instructed to move and destroy. What were they waiting for? Look at them, they are stubborn. When we were destroying the other side, people that we have not gotten to were sitting down looking at us as if we will not get to them. Sorry, we are demolishing sizable number of shops today.”

During the exercise, some traders were seen weeping and attempting to stop the demolishing team who did not listen to them. The magazine learnt that the demolition will continue till tomorrow.

In a statement issued by the government and made available to the magazine, the government said that about 1,000 shops would be built in the demolishing market under public private partnership scheme with modern infrastructure.

They assured that the new shops will be allocated to the occupants of the market, adding that no new person would be allocated shops until all that were on ground have been allocated.