By Job Osazuwa
Like flames of fire, traders, comprising over 100 women and a few men from Second Gate, Agboju Market, Festac Town, in Amuwo Odofin Council Area of Lagos State, abandoned their shops to march against their alleged tormentor, Mrs. Nonye Ukegbu, whom they said has intermittently unleashed terror on them.
At about 10am on September 20, the traders, under the umbrella of Alhaja Abibatu Mogaji Market Association, besieged the premises of the Federal Housing Authority (FHA), singing solidarity songs and calling on the authorities to call Ukegbu, popularly known as Hajiya, to order. They also went there to clarify from FHA if it gave its backing to the accused to take charge of the market and every other space they were using for their businesses.
Their grievances were also not unconnected with the claim that the same woman, who showed up at the market only two years ago, is boasting of her connections with FHA and Amuwo Odofin local council to collect different levies, as well as using security agents to enforce the collection of the levies.
Some of the placards read: “We don’t want criminals as leaders; FHA please help us”; “Hajiya is not needed in Agboju Market”; “Enough of constant oppression from a terror”; “We have tired of paying N300,000 every year by force”; “Our lives are no longer safe”; and “The extortion is unbearable”.
But Mrs. Ukegbu, while speaking to the reporter on the telephone, countered most of the allegations against her. In fact, she said most of the traders’ complaints were strange to her. She said the traders had in the past levelled many accusations against her that were later found to be a mere hoax.
One of the traders, Mr. Uzor George, told Daily Sun that the accused always brought thugs and, occasionally, men in military and police uniform to aid and serve as shield for the thugs in the forceful collection of levies from the traders.
A petition by the traders to the zonal manager of FHA, South West, dated July 7, and jointly signed by Mr. Chizoba Eze, Mr. Chukwuka Johnson, Mrs. C. Onyia and Mrs. R.B. Anofi, read: “From the actions taken by the FHA on the demolition of the buffer zone some months ago, it gave us the conviction that the land area is still under the ownership and control of the FHA. We want the FHA to make a categorical statement to prove that the accused woman was not working for the authority.”
They are more worried that the woman has sworn to evict everyone that refuses to comply with her terms. She was said to have stormed the market with her guards on September 18, to issue a threat that she had been given permission by the FHA to demolish the entire market in a matter of days. As gathered, she, therefore, advised whoever was still interested in continuing trading in the area to apply for a fresh allocation of space through her.
Another angry trader, Mrs. Comfort Oresotu, a widow, said that Hajiya would collect money for security, sanitation and also for loss of any trader without remitting the money to the deceased’s family members.
Responding to the protesters at FHA premises, Mr. Alaba Omoniyi, who said that he was standing in for the zonal manager of FHA, commended the traders for the boldness to speak out. He told them that the accused was not in any way commissioned to work or collect any money for FHA.
He said that the housing authority had not authorised anybody to re-allocate the land.
“However, if you have had any agreement with whoever answers that name that you are mentioning has nothing to do with FHA. She has to present a letter of allocation emanating from FHA, if indeed we approved it.
“That axis you are talking about has been allocated to Amuwo Odofin LGA for the government to build its secretariat,” he said.
Ukegbu said that there was never a time she threatened to demolish the place and re-allocate it to new owners. She explained that she only told the traders recently that FHA and the local government might come anytime soon to demolish the place, as long they were there illegally. She said that she did so out of sympathy for the traders so that they would not be caught unawares.
She added that she has stopped collecting levies from the traders since she found out that the entire market would soon be demolished by the authorities.
On how she came into the market to be collecting levies, she stated that: “The space was leased to my brother, Mr. Gilbert Okereke, by Amuwo Odofin LGA for 35 years. My brother went ahead to the bank in 2006 to borrow money, but along the line the proper approval from the local government didn’t work out. But my brother had already purchased some caterpillars and sand-filled the swampy area. He wanted to build a modern plaza there.
“Then in 2015, my brother asked me to be helping him to collect levies from the market to recover some of the money we had already invested there.”