Money changers still beckon passersby on Allen Avenue in the nucleus of Ikeja, prostitutes line the road at night; a rendezvous called the University of Suya, a favourite haunt for locals and foreigners, serves sweet meat kebabs 24/7.
Tech savvy new generation banks and revamped old brands are everywhere you look, competing for space with sleek clothes shops, electronics stores, hotels, telecom operators, courier firms, newspaper vendors, and makeshift night bukas on the walkway.
Two eateries for the middle class, Mama Cass the familiar and Kentucky Fried Chicken the new import from across the Atlantic, remain in their locations.
Alade Market – where the naira could buy anything from dollars, pound sterling, euro, to farm produce, books, household items, to electrical gadgets – is, however, gone for good.
Reporter MMEDARAMFON UMOREN presents the angst of some traders, the relief of others, and the reason Ikeja Council demolished a landmark on a famous boulevard.
Traders at the popular Alade Market on Allen Avenue, Ikeja are the latest to be affected by the wave of changes to upgrade slums and shantytowns in the metropolis and the suburbs to the vision of Lagos as a mega city rid of ghettos.
It has been a roller coaster ride for the traders since Ikeja Council began to redevelop the market into an upscale shopping mall through a concessionaire, Masters Reality International Concepts Limited.
Legal and illegal occupiers of shops in the old Alade Market have, in the process, had their fair share of the stresses and strains of relocation.
Legal occupiers can reclaim their shops in the New Alade Market 300 metres down the bend on Obafemi Awolowo Way – close to Allen Junction, like the old market – by showing proof of rent payment. But illegal occupiers are left stranded.
Some residents of the vicinity are sympathetic to the traders, others said the relocation was long due as traders flouted environmental cleanliness laws and ghettoised the old trading spot.
Irresistible N6.9b on the table
The agreement between Ikeja Council and Masters Reality has been in place since 2010. The developer will invest an eye-bulging N6.9 billion into the mall on a Build, Own, and Transfer (BOT) basis and manage it for 30 years and make profit.
TheNiche discovered from traders still selling in improvised stands on the edges of the closed-off old market that many of them had been part of the illegal occupiers.
One said: “Everyone is angry and there’s no need talking. We talked and talked and nothing happened. Didn’t you see us on your television screen?
“We have been forced out of the market unlawfully and it has been demolished. There’s nothing left for us to say so, just forget it. Everybody is angry.”
Rationale for relocation
Ikeja Council said the market needed to be relocated because it was not conducive for traders and did not befit a cosmopolitan city.
Council Sole Administrator, Abiodun Taiwo, explained that “with the mega status of Ikeja, the old Alade Market can no longer stand the test of time.
“Coupled with that, most of the structures in the market failed integrity test hence the need to have them pulled down.”
He cited the lack of modern facilities in the old market which are provided in the new site.
“I wonder how a market like Alade in the heart of Ikeja can function without a car park and having just two units of toilet.”
Local Government and Community Affairs Commissioner, Muslim Folami, added that the structure of the old market was obsolete, leaving the government with no choice but to relocate the traders to upgrade the market.
He disclosed that he has visited the new site equipped with modern facilities.
“We don’t need a ghetto (old Alade Market) in a mega city. Those traders who are still recalcitrant, that is their problem,” he said.
Folami’s Special Assistant, Olisemeka Obi, also explained that “the local government decided to move the market because that place is already constituting a nuisance.
“So, instead of allowing the place to deteriorate, they gave this concessionaire the idea to rebuild Alade Market as a big shopping mall with parking lots under.”
New location
Construction is still going on in the new market where builders are working on shops and the car park. A large number of shops have been constructed but some have no doors yet.
Some traders told TheNiche that there were cases of more than one person paying for and laying claim to a shop in the new location. But the market leaders appeared too busy and husky when their reaction was sought.
Obi clarified, however, that the traders are to present their original letter of allocation or any proof of being a shop owner to reclaim a shop.
“Instead of chasing people away to start that project, they said let’s build a new market for them.
“Everyone who has a letter of allocation, who is a bonafide owner of a shop, in the [old] Alade Market, they are already getting their shops back, all of them, in the new location.
“Once you come with your original letter of allocation or show proof that you are a shop owner in the [old] Alade Market, they will automatically give you a letter for this new place,” he said.
Iyaloja General of Nigeria, Folashade Tinubu-Ojo, said it is the first time a new market was provided before an old one was pulled down and the relocation is in the interest of all traders affected.
“Traders in the old Alade Market are lucky because they are the first set that will be provided with an alternative before the commencement of the redevelopment.
“In previous cases, the redevelopment would have started before provision was made for the occupiers,” she stressed.
The new Alade Market, which sits on 2.5 hectares of land, is described as one of the most modern markets in Lagos.
It has 504 lock-up shops, 200 units of open stalls, 20 toilets, 350kva and 150kva generators, a creche, praying ground for both Christians and Muslims, three boreholes, as well as an ample car park that can take up to 350 cars at a time.
Taiwo confirmed Tinubu-Ojo’s comments about the uniqueness of the new market at the commissioning on July 22.
Said he: “This is the first time traders will be relocated even to a better market before the old one is pulled down. When we were appointed, [Governor Akinwunmi Ambode] gave us a salient assignment.
“He said he wanted a clean market. I believe this market is in tandem with that. He said he wanted a very safe environment. I think this market also has a pass mark in that regard.
“And he said he wants a prosperous Lagos and this is a foundation for prosperous traders. Today, we are here to commission what was a dream.”
Out of the woods?
However, traders are displeased with the arrangement which compels them to pay N150,000 for a shop, bearing in mind that they have the choice of returning to the old location once the mall is completed.
Some complained that the rent they paid in the old site which has not expired was not considered.
But Tinubu-Ojo enjoined traders still disgruntled about the development to join hands with the government, the concessionaire, and other traders to take the market to new heights.
She assured they would have the opportunity to apply for shops after the redevelopment is completed.
Iyaloja of Alade Market, Aina Adenuga, praised Ambode and Ikeja Council for the “systematic, people-friendly approach” to the relocation.
“We are happy that the government first provided a better, bigger, and more conducive place for us before asking us to relocate. We are happy to move to the new Alade Market which we see as a movement to our promised land,” she said.
Thugs and legal battle
While some traders are settling gradually into the new location, others have drawn a battle line with the government.
Last year, they filed a lawsuit at a Lagos High Court arguing that the government had no legal right to evacuate them as the case was still in court.
Some traders alleged that armed thugs invaded the old market to harass them on July 15.
Lola Odunsi-Dania, a market leader, said they were making an undertaking with their lawyer when they heard that Masters Reality brought hooligans to the market to terrorise people with planks and all sorts of things.
Members of a group called Concerned Traders of Alade Market claimed they bought the shops more than 20 years ago, insisting that the forced relocation violated their rights.
Jiti Ogunye, counsel to one of the aggrieved traders’ associations, accused the council of conniving with Masters Reality to replace the market with a shopping mall through the backdoor.
He alleged in an open letter to Ambode that council officials had continued to forcefully eject traders from their shops despite a pending lawsuit.
“The issues of whether our clients could be relocated from the said land is part of the issues being currently litigated at the High Court of Lagos State, Ikeja Judicial Division,” he said.
“It will, thus, amount to a grave abuse of the rule of law to resort to self-help while the issues are being tried before a competent court of law that is adjudicating the matter.
“The law is settled that once a civil matter is placed before a court or judicial tribunal for adjudication, parties to the court action must refrain from doing anything capable of overreaching, undermining or foisting a fait accompli on the court.
“Doing so will not only be tantamount to subverting the rule of law, but also will amount to treating the court with contempt.
“No matter the impatience on the part of parties, they are under a legal obligation to await the outcome of the resolution or determination of the issues submitted to the court for adjudication.”
Masters Reality Managing Director, Lai Omotola, acknowledged that a court order to maintain status quo ante until the substantive suit is determined was issued, but only after work had started on the project site.
He insisted that “the order did not affect our construction work. There is no case of contempt here. Also, the court rejected an application in which the concerned traders were seeking to restrain us from executing the project. The court did not grant the application.
“The Concerned Traders are not shop owners in the old Alade Market. They only rented shops from the original allottees and real tenants of the Ikeja Local Government.
“So, the Concerned Traders are never legal occupants of the market because there were never tenancy agreements between the local government and these traders.
“They lack legal grounds to either sue the parties or protest the relocation of the market.”
Allocation cost
A sales girl in the new location, who did not want her name in print, accused market leaders of taking advantage of the transfer to extort money from traders.
She said: “God will judge everyone according to his work. The government is no longer concerned with what is going on here. Some people do not have shops which is why they’re stationed outside the market.
“Even though [Adenuga] is in charge of the distribution, there is no order in this shop allocation matter.
“They haven’t done any serious work here, but those who had paid rent in the former market and their rent hasn’t expired still have to pay the money for a new shop in full.
“Also, people we elected to lead us are cheating us just because they need money.”
But Tinubu-Ojo assured of transparency in the system. She explained that the cost of new shops for fresh allottees in the new market differs from that for old allottees in the old market.
“The cost of the shop to the original allottees is N150,000. But for fresh traders, the price would differ. The price for the original allottees was for the purchase of the shop.”
Another sales girl disclosed that “shops are sold for N150,000 but that is just for people who already had shops in the former market.
“Those who do not have at all pay from N350,000 (the owner of the shop takes N300,000 while the agent takes N50,000).”