Chief Mrs Folashade Tinubu-Ojo, the Iyaloja General of Nigeria has reacted to yesterday protests at the popular Oyingbo market which was shut down in Lagos, last Friday.
In a chat with newsmen on Wednesday in Alausa, Ikeja, Tinubu-Ojo said the Chairman of the Lagos Mainland Local Government, Omolola Essien, who is in charge of the Oyingbo Market, ordered that the market be closed due to the poor hygiene of the market.
Tinubu-Ojo stated this while addressing members of the press at Alausa, Ikeja on Wednesday.
“The Chairman of the Local Government called me and said that she had ordered the immediate closure of the market. She said the market was too dirty and not appropriate as a sales for food items to be consumed by human beings”.
“I also visited the market myself and ordered the traders to immediately commence a sanitation exercise and that the market will not be reopened until the market is properly cleaned.
“In order not to make the traders suffer much losses, I asked that traders selling perishable items to continue selling till the end of the day but that no trader at all will be allowed to sell from the next day”.
Mrs Abimbola, the Iyaloja of Agric Coker Odunade section of the Oyingbo Market said that they had raised a team to conduct an inspection of the Oyingbo market if it was clean enough to open, but when he got there, they found that the market was worse than it was the last time.
Speaking further, Chief Mrs Tinubu Ojo said that Ministry of Environment officials took pictures as evidence of the dirty state of the market.
She also responded to the allegations that she is demanding a fine of 5 million naira from traders at the Oyingbo market.
“BBC Yoruba reported that I ordered the closure of the market because they did not pay the N5 million levy. This is common blackmail that some of the traders resort to so that they can cover their misdemeanour. A section of them were even trying to intimidate us while we were at the market but we stood our ground.”
She also used the opportunity to advise all traders across markets in Lagos to disinfect and clean their markets.
Alleluia is the Assistant Editor and Content Writer at LagosPost.ng. She is a prolific writer and editor, she has written features and news stories on Lifestyle, Sports, Business, Politics and B2B marketing. She is also an event coordinator, host and social media content creator.
