Traders at the popular Ile-Epo Market in Abule Egba area of
Lagos State have called on Governor Akinwunmi Ambode to urgendly wade into last
Thursday’s mayhem in the market which led to a serious blood bath.
Policemen from Idimu and Ile-Epo Police
Station and thugs from the National Union of Road Transport Workers, NURTW,
brought by the Executive Secretary of Agbado Oke-Odo Local Council Development
Area, LCDA allegedly invaded the market where some traders were shot by the
police and others macheted by thugs.
The traders in a statement issued on Sunday and signed by
William Falana, Secretary, Ile-Epo Market and the Iyaloja General of the
market, Mrs Modupe Shonola vowed that if Ambode did not wade into the crisis, a
massive calamity never witnessed in the history of markets in Lagos State might
befall Agbado Oke-Odo LCDA this week.
“If the government and lovers of peace in Lagos State do not
call to order the Executive Secretary of Agbado Oke-Odo, Engr. Famuyiwa and his
rampaging thugs of NURTW, as led by their leader, Richard Adeyanju in their
penchant to ensure that traders at Ile Epo Market know no peace, there will be
crisis,” the traders said in the statement.
The crisis in the market is a tussle about revenue collection
which had pitched market leaders with the Agbado Oke-Odo LCDA, with the traders
insisting that the council could not use NURTW thugs to collect revenue in the
market as the market is never a motor park.
The traders said it would be wise for Ambode to wade into this
crisis once and for all before it becomes too late, saying that “we want the
governor to among others declare whether the NURTW has the right to be
operating in the market where there is no motor garage, whether any LG in the
state has the right to engage NURTW thugs for any revenue drive in the market
or whether traders too can collect money at any motor garage or bus stop in
Lagos State.
“This, we urgently expect the governor to make known as all
effort of the Iyaloja General seems not be adhered to by the police and the
NURTW concerning Ile Epo Market. We hereby express gratitude to the Iyaloja
General for her various efforts towards ensuring peace in Lagos Markets and Ile
Epo Market, particularly and we want to assure her that the entire traders in
Ile Epo have now come to realize that we need to stand up to rescue our market
from lawless government agents and thugs who are bent on destroying the good
image of the market in Lagos State,” the statement said.
According to them, the call on Ambode to intervene followed last
week Thursday’s “daylight attack by invading thugs of NURTW, police men from
Idimu and Ile- Epo Police stations where many innocent and harmless traders
were shot and mercilessly macheted in the full glare of all on directive of the
Executive Secretary who led the invasion.
“Trouble started when despite a court order and the directives
of various stakeholders together with the instruction of the Iyaloja General,
Mrs Folashade Tinubu-Ojo, the Executive Secretary invaded the market in company
of policemen from Idimu and Ile Epo Police Station and thugs from NURTW and
started shooting at everybody.”
“Apart from those shot and macheted, all the members of the
market committee together with leaders of each ethnic groups in the market were
arrested and whisked away to Idimu Police Station from where they were later
taken to the Magistrate Court in Ogba. Presently, Ganiyu Nosiru is in critical
condition at LASUTH where the doctors are battling to save his life after he
was brutally shot at close range by an inspector at Ile Epo while Dele and
Shina are at a private hospital now receiving treatment for gunshots wounds and
machete cuts,” the statement said.
According to the statement, “the entire leadership of this
market hereby at this juncture declare that the Executive Secretary of Agbado
Oke Odo is an enemy of the people and the entire traders at Ile Epo Market, as
he was the one who brought Richard Adeyanju together with the police at Idimu
and NURTW thugs into the market to kill and maim harmless and innocent traders.
“It was Richard Adeyanju, the leader of the NURTW thugs that was
pointing the market leaders to the police. In the confusion, an inspector shot
Ganiyu Nosiru at close range. The inspector ran after the boy when he
discovered that he did not die but for the marketers who covered the boy with
black polythene, the rampaging inspector from Ile Epo would have finished the
boy in the full glare of traders on that Thursday by 2:30pm.”
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