Traders protest demolition of shops in Ibadan

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Traders protest demolition of shops in Ibadan

Written by Adebayo Waheed Tuesday, 25 September 2012

Traders at the Iwo Road interchange, Ibadan, Oyo state, on Monday protested the demolition of their shops by the state goverment.

The traders, numbering about 2,000, gathered at the Iwo Road interchange, calling on the state goverment to fulfil its promise of providing them with an alternative.

It will be recalled that the state goverment had demolished about 2,000 illegal structures and shops to allow for the ongoing beautification project in the area.

The aim of the government is to beautify the Iwo Road interchange, being the entry point to the state.

The traders also trekked from the interchange to the state secretariat, Agodi, to present their grievances to the governor, Senator Abiola Ajimobi.

Their protest disrupted the free flow of traffic on the routes they passed.

The chairman of Egbeda Shopping Complex Traders’ Association, Chief Tunde Babasola, told the Nigerian Tribune that the traders decided to protest to the Governor’s Office because efforts to have an audience with him had failed.

According to him, after the demolition of the shops, the governor met the affected traders and promised to provide them with alternative, “but since that meeting, the traders have not been allowed to meet the governor again.”

Mr Babasola disclosed that the government had promised that a neighbourhood market would be constructed for the traders within the vicinity.

While noting that no fewer than 2,000 shops were demolished, Babalola said that the traders were not against the state government’s policies, but government should provide victims of such policies with alternatives.

“Not all of us are educated to get paid employment, and we need to feed our families and send our children to school”, he said, while appealing to Governor Ajimobi not to forget his promise to the traders.