By Steve Agbota
Bennie Moore Traders Association have lamented lamented the death of their four members, which include two pregnant women and two other traders due to unlawful eviction from their shopping complex at Mandilas market in Lagos.
The traders have therefore called on both Federal and Lagos State Governments to intervene in order to avert more disaster, even as they decried injustice from landlord of the shopping complex and the Lagos State Building Control Agency (LASBCA).
Speaking with Journalists in Lagos, Chairman of the association Ogbonna Okoro, said that the shopping complex was leased to the traders in 2009 by Heavenly Homes Limited, popularly known as Bennie Moore with initial rent of three year upfront, in 2019, adding that after 11 years, the landlord came back that the traders should pay another three years because the original owner, Africa Alliance Nigeria Plc asked them to do so.
He said that the traders paid for another three years accordingly to maintain their shops but in July 2021 trouble started as men from LASBCA keep coming to harass them to quit the shops.
He said all efforts to speak with LASBCA Director proved abortive as he was not ready to listen to their side of the story. He said the traders have lost over N700 million in the last three months since they were not allowed to enter the shopping complex to trade.
He alleged that Africa Alliance conspired with a new developer, Nnamdi Dike Global Mass to evict all the tenants from the building while the traders’ three years rent still running, which would lapse in December 2023.
“Members paid N1.4 million, N1.3 million and some paid N800,000 accordingly for the shop. And we have over 200 shops and with 320 tenants in the building. After paying the three years, members are doing their businesses until July 30, 2021. A group of men with police came and they asked us to park that they want to lock the shops. We asked them why, they said the building was about to collapse.
“I called the landlord and told him about the development and he said no, that the building has no problem. There was a time he was asked to conduct test on the building and he did it, which he provide the test document. We took the test result to the LASBCA to prove that the building is sound and there is nothing wrong with it.
After giving them the test result, they insisted that we should park that they must do what they asked them to do,” he stated.
“We later filed the matter at the magistrate court at Tunubu. The people told the magistrate that the have consent of the court to sealed the building. The magistrate told them that there is no way they would have consent of the court without these people in the building.
“We called for dialogue and the first meeting, Nnamdi Dike was and his lawyer did not come. Bennie More and heavenly home did not come. We later found out that it was one lawyer representing Bennie More and Nnamdi Dike at the same time. This man was the person that wrote consent of the court and stamped it without telling us. Our landlord collide with the lawyer to do the consent of the court,” he added.
Meanwhile, Women leader of the association, Rashidat Olarewaju, described the situation as unlawful and begged government to come to their aids.
“It is not only Igbo trading in the plaza, Yoruba and other people are there too. We call on the government to intervene on the issue, because life have been difficult for the traders in the last three months of not doing anything,” she cried.