20th August, 2015
Cyriacus Izuekwe
Justice Iyabo Akinkugbe of the Lagos State High Court has struck out an order stopping the demolition of Ladipo Auto Spare Parts Market in Mushin, Lagos State, western Nigeria.
This followed the report by the traders through the BOT chairman, Nnamdi Chukwuka, who informed the court that they had settled with the developer and Mushin Local Government, and they have given approval for the reconstruction of the market to a modern plaza.
Akinkugbe had earlier given an order stopping Mushin Local Government Council and the developer from demolishing the market for the purpose of re-development.
At the last hearing, Chukwuka informed the court on behalf of the traders, of their intention to discontinue the matter, since the traders had agreed and settled with the developer and Mushin council that owns the market.
Consequently, the court struck out the matter and the traders went for negotiation for re-development.
The initial attempt to demolish the market caused uproar as the traders protested and claimed that they were not given any prior notice.
This was denied by the council authorities who said the traders were given adequate notice.
This attracted the attention of well meaning Nigerians who intervened to broker peace among the parties.
In spite of the out of court settlement, there may be a fresh crisis after the parties went for negotiation on the fate of those who bought shops at the market and it ended in a stalemate.
P.M.NEWS gathered that during the negotiation, the developer told the shop owners in the market that they would pay N3.5m to regain their shops after the market had been re-constructed. They were also asked to pay N30,000 non refundable fee to obtain forms.
This did not go down well with the traders who offered to pay N1m. The amount was also rejected by the developer.
Some of the traders who spoke to our correspondent said they envisaged such a deadlock because there was no solid arrangement between the traders who own shops, the developer and the local government council.
They feared that they would suffer the same fate as that of shop owners in various markets where such re-development was done. At the end of the day they lost their shops due to the high cost of renting back the shops.
Our correspondent could not reach the developer for comment concerning the matter nor the council secretary.
Efforts to reach Mushin LGA information officer, Mr Akin Akinwumi failed as his phones were switched off.