Lamentations in Lagos as government targets the poor, destroys their means of livelihood

Early Monday Morning, November 27, 2023, tears flowed like river as petty traders at Mile 2, Suru Alaba and Alaba Suru, along Badagry Expressway in Lagos, went to market only to behold debris of their shops, kiosks, counters and their wares.

According to the traders while many of them were at the church praying to their God on Sunday, the government rolled out caterpillars to destroy their shops and goods.

Some of the traders who narrated their ordeal to journalists disclosed that they could not pick even a pin of their goods since they were not informed of the intended demolition.

The traders also disclosed that the government came with a team of soldiers, police and other security agencies who were armed to the teeth to carry out the assignment hence many of the traders out of fear could not get close to the site of the demolition for fear of being shot.

They also revealed that at Alaba Suru a young man who dared to video the demolition had his phone snatched from him and was whisked away, even though report indicated he was later released.

Many of the traders also queried why the demolition should be embarked upon now that the economy is not looking up.

One of the traders, who wanted to be identified as Okey who spoke to some journalists said, “I was in the market attending to my customers and fiam, everybody was running helter-skelter, you could not pick anything self, I could only pick a bag of the clothes that I am selling, other ones were destroyed by caterpillars. The security people intimidated us; we just ran away and watched from a distance. Why are they destroying our source of livelihood now that we can hardly make ends meet?”

Another trader who deals in foodstuffs said she does not know where to go to because she is the breadwinner of her family. “I am just tired of this life as you see me so; I don’t know what government means since all they know is to punish the people. Early this year we all went out to vote, I voted Sanwo-Olu, I voted for Tinubu, now where is the benefit of all that, if not pain and suffering.

“I feed my family, my husband is okada rider, but since the fuel something, subsidy removal, he was not meeting up, so the owner of the okada has taken it from him. So while he is still looking for what to do, I am the person feeding him and four children. What do you want me to do now? They didn’t even tell us that they are coming at least we would have removed our things. It is not fair. But why on Sunday, why?” she lamented.

All efforts to find out the agency that carried out the demolition have failed to yield result, even though all fingers are being pointed at the Lagos State Government which allegedly has been working to achieve a cleaner Lagos by pulling down offending structures around major roads and markets, which has affected many markets in Lagos including Ladpo Market, Oyinbo, Alaba International, Trade Fair Markets, among others.