A portion of the Alaba Market plaza was demolished on Sunday.
Ohanaeze Ndigbo, through its President, Chief Emmanuel Iwuanyanwu urged the Igbo in Alaba market to remain law abiding.
Sources informed Vision Newspapers that the officials had negotiated with traders for a fee of #40million. The sources claimed that they offered #30 million to the officials which they refused.
They claimed that they requested time to raise the additional #10million. They, however, alleged that the hasty move to demolish the building was because they had sold the space to the Chinese business men.
Other sources within the leadership in the market and other stakeholders have contrary views.
Ogbonnia said: “Since the disturbing news broke out, we have made investigations in order to establish the true state of affairs. One of the reliable sources, Hon. Comrade Chinedu Ukatu, Member, Lagos State Market Advisory Council and President Ndigbo-Amaka Progressive Market Association, stated that “the Lagos State Environment and Development Authority has been issuing warnings as regards the obstruction of some waterways.”
Continuing, “All that happened at Alaba and the emergency visit by the state government officials were directly about those blocking the free flow of water through the provided waterways.”
Chief Okolo, a stakeholder was of the same view with Ukatu. Chief Ikechukwu Okolo said: “The truth is that some structures were erected on waterways, thereby obstructing drainages and causing flooding, especially during the rainy seasons. According to Okolo, “the owners of the affected structures have since been notified, for months, but as we can see, each time the execution order was to be effected, corrupt Government officials would get compromised, and the flooding challenge continues, until this time.”
Meanwhile, other stakeholders advised traders to always do due diligence before investing their hard-earned money in illegal land.