BY BABALOLA GAFAR, ABEOKUTA
Some traders at the Sabo Market in Sagamu Local Government Area of Ogun State, on Thursday, protested the shortage of shops in the market following the reconstruction of the razed market by the state government.
The aggrieved traders started the peaceful demonstration from the market to the Akarigbo Palace to express their displeasure on the shortage of shops in the market.
There was traffic gridlock for several hours in the area as placard bearing protesters blocked part of the road, singing solidarity songs.
Recall that the Sabo market was razed on January 28, 2020, leaving properties worth millions of naira destroyed.
The state government reconstructed 188 out of the over 3,000 shops that the traders, mostly women, said were destroyed by the inferno.
The traders lamented that the shortage of shops may plunge the market into crisis.
The Secretary of the market, Abdulrahaman Ojuolape, said, “We are in a dilemma on how to allocate 188 shops to over 3,000 beneficiaries.”
Ojuolape said that the traders were ready to vote against the second term ambition of Governor Abiodun if he failed to address the issue.
Kemi Ogunowo, another trader in the market, said, “The government has only reconstructed 188 shops, while we lost more than 3,000 shops to the inferno.
“If they should allocate the 188 shops, a number of traders would be shortchanged and that could lead to crisis.
“We are begging our governor to help rebuild the remaining shops before it is too late.”
The Chairman, Sagamu Local Government Area of Ogun State, Afolabi Odulate, said, “There is a process to everything and I have been trying to explain things to them.
“No one is going to take the shops away from the traders. It belongs to them. Once they pay for it, it belongs to them; we are not giving it out to people who don’t have shops in the market.
“We know that the shops are not enough, I personally took it upon myself to go to Abeokuta to tell the commissioner that they should release the shops to the local government to complete the rest and they agreed.”
