For demolishing the popular Oshodi market, Ohaneze Ndigbo Youth Council have declared Governor Akinwunmi Ambode public enemy number one.
national President of the Ohanaeze Youth Council, OYC, Mazi Okechukwu Isiguzoro, said the demolition was done in bad faith as the governor knew the Igbo traders had gone to their respective villages to celebrate the holidays.
He said, “it is instructive to observe here that contrary to all principles of common justice, the traders were merely given few days quit notice. It is equally shocking that the government chose such a wrong time for the demolition exercise, thereby not only taking the shops from them but making sure that their wares were looted.
“We are forced to ask: could this be the starting point in implementing Oba of Lagos’s earlier threat during the election period that Ndigbo would be thrown into the Lagoon? Could it be another round of deportation of exercise, similar to what former governor Fashola did? These appear to be so considering that a witch cried in the night and a child died in the morning.”
He added, “it is quite inhuman for people’s means of livelihood to be taken away from them in such a manner. The government’s claim that arms were recovered from a section of the market does not fly at all here because it cannot be a reason for such a wicked treatment purely targeted on a particular people.
“We demand that the Governor of Lagos State should direct relevant government agencies to adequately compensate these traders; anything short of that, Ndigbo will henceforth regard the Governor as their number one arch-enemy.”