The Lagos state Governor, Babatunde Raji Fashola, on Sunday, promised to reopen the Ladipo auto spare part market if the traders clean-up the area and adhere to instructions to henceforth stop selling on the road or the edges of the canal.
Fashola disclosed this while on an inspection tour to the market, following appeals by the traders and the leadership of the Igbo Council in Lagos state, led by Prof. Anya Anya.
The market was closed down last Monday over allegation of environmental degradation.
The Governor was accompanied on the inspection tour by the state Commissioner for Environment, Mr. Tunji Bello; Chairman, state Task Force on Environmental and Special Offences, Mr. Bayo Sulaiman; Director, Enforcement, MoE, Mr. Toyin Onisarotu and Chairman, Mushin LGA, Mr. Babatunde Adepitan, among other top functionaries.
The Governor described the state of the market and its environs as “massive degradation of a section of Lagos”.
Gov. Fashola said, “It is a massive degradation of a section of Lagos and this is not acceptable. People should not carry on like this.
“But what is, perhaps, worthy of note is that those who are involved have seen the error of what they have done here and are ready to work with us to clean up and I have said here that they must take the lead.
“The canal there poses a lot of danger and we are expecting heavy rains. I don’t want to come back here to pick any dead body. We built the canal and we must make it work by not trading on it and not dumping refuse in it.”
He advised the traders to work with Mushin LG and the Ministry of Environment to effect the clean-up and sanitation of the market.
“You will clean first and when you have done it, I will come back and I will bring members of your leadership who came to me and we will say this is the agreement now. We will sign a new agreement; nobody trades on the road, it must be behind the property line. Nobody trades on the pavement, it is for pedestrians,” Fashola said.
While responding, the President General of the Ladipo Central Executive of the Auto Dealers’ Association, Mr. Ikechukwu Animalu, agreed that the environmental situation at the market was bad and promised that the traders would adhere to instructions from the Governor and environmental agencies.
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