Lagos Seals Alade Market Days After Shutting Alaba, Trade Fair International Markets

The Lagos State government has sealed Alade Market in the Onigbongbo area of the state.

The Commissioner for Environment and Water Resources, Tokunbo Wahab, disclosed this on Wednesday.

According to the commissioner, the market was sealed for indiscriminate dumping of refuse, and failure to comply with the rules of the Lagos Waste Management Authority (LAWMA), among other environmental offences.

The sealing of the market is coming a few days after Alaba Market and the Trade Fair International Complex were shut over environmental infractions.

“Alade Market in Onigbongbo has been sealed over several environmental infractions such as lack of waste bins, filthy environment, illegal burning of refuse by the roadside, Indiscriminate dumping of refuse, and failure to comply with the rules of @Lawma_gov,” Wahab said via his X handle @tokunbo_wahab.

Meanwhile, traders at Trade Fair International Complex, on Tuesday lamented the closure of the market by the government.

Addressing journalists, Chairman, Trade Fair Stakeholders Association, Eric Ilechukwu, said there was no prior notice before the market was closed.

“We are surprised that there is no notification or information to let us know if we are doing something that is wrong, which I know that we never do.

“We have over 62 plazas here and everything has been locked. We derive our title from the Federal Government, not the state government. So, I see no reason the state government will come here to lock us out without informing the management,” Ilechukwu said “We were surprised that such a thing can happen at this time.”

Also speaking, the President, African Tyre Village, Isa Akanbi, said that they were not owing LAWMA and wondered why their shops were locked.

Akanbi said: “LAWMA knows that we have sanitation structures in this complex and they are supervising the structures, they didn’t go through that structure and they didn’t notify any of the market leaders.”

“Sundays are off days for the marketers and they come when we are not around to lock the markets. We are not dirty; we do not owe them, why do we deserve this?”

On his part, former ASPAMDA chairman, Daniel Oforkansi said a lot has been lost as a result of the closure of the market.

He said: “I don’t understand if LAWMA does not see us as humans. No information or letter was written to us to that effect; they just came to lock our shops.

“We do not owe them; we have receipts and evidence to prove it. And when you talk of markets in Nigeria and across Africa, the Lagos International Trade Fair is the pride of Africa. So you cannot quantify the amount that has been lost to the miss normal of LAWMA for just a day. The N2 billion cash transaction is too small to quantify the loss for today alone. So I don’t know what LAWMA is thinking about, but I know that in due time, the law will take its course.”

THE WHISTLER contacted the spokesperson of LAWMA, Folashade Kadiri, on the allegation by the traders that there was no prior notice before the market was sealed, but she has yet to respond to a WhatsApp message sent to her by our correspondent since Tuesday afternoon.