The Inspector General of Police, Mr. Idris Ibrahim has taken steps to avert a looming bloodshed between Igbo and Yoruba traders at the Alaba International Market over ownership of property still under litigation.
Based on a petition by Igbo traders, under the aegis of New Site Shopping Mall and Warehouse Section, who had cried out over the alleged illegal eviction from a property, the Inspector General of Police directed the Assistant Inspector General of Police in-Charge of Zone 2 to carry out a thorough investigation of the complaints of the traders to avert bloodshed and potential clash between Igbo and Yoruba traders in the market.
The Igbo traders, had in a petition by their chairman, Eze Ezebuadi and Secretary, Ikechukwu Umeuhabike, asked the Inspector General of the Police to protect them against the use of armed thugs and suspected members of the Oodua Peoples Congress, OPC, to violently chase them away from the property, which is the subject matter of a suit pending before a Lagos High Court, sitting in Badagry.
In the petition, the traders said they purchased the land, 48 plots at Alaba International Market Annex, Alaba-Rago, Ojo, sometime in 2008, from the original owners, Omo Eleduwa family of Kemberi and Adetona Cambell family. According to them, they had used the parcel of land as park, where their containers are dumped and goods sold to the customers until 2010, when one Almotson Nigeria Limited, led by one Akande materialised and claimed that the state government gave them Certificate of Occupancy in respect of the same land.
“In November 2015, Amotson Nigeria Limited filled a law suit at the state High Court sitting in Badagry, claiming that we the traders trespassed on the land. On June 13, 2016, the trial judge, Justice Bola Okikiolu-Ighile refused the application of injection sought by the claimant and ordered accelerated hearing of the matter.”
The Igbo traders had earlier, through their counsel Mr. Toyin Keshinro, in a pre-proceedings notice sent to the Attorney General of Lagos State, Mr. Kazeem Adeniji lamented how the officials of the state Ministry of Environment at the instance of Almotson Nigeria Limited, invaded the property and carried out the illegal demolition of the property, in flagrant disobedience to court order that refused to restrain the traders from the property.
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