Finally, Traders End 20-year Feud, Relocate from Alade Market

• Illegal occupants warned against public disorder

By Gboyega Akinsanmi

After 20 years of sustained resistance, all traders in Alade Market relocated to a newly built alternative market yesterday, thereby paving the way for its redevelopment of N6.9 billion ultra-modern shopping mall.

The traders finally relocated with the intervention of the Lagos State Government, Ikeja Local Government and the Iyaloja of Alade Market, with Chief Aina Adenuga, who disclosed that all legal allotees in the old market had started moving into the alternative market.

All parties agreed to the relocation plan after series of meeting at the weekend with the Sole Administrator of Ikeja Local Government, Mr. Abiodun Taiwo and representatives of the state government among others.

The decision of all the parties to relocate from Alade Market ended a 20-year conflict, which undermined the proposal to redevelop the market to Alade Shopping Mall valued N6.9 billion.

The parties, thus, agreed that the concessionaire of the Alade Shopping Mall, the Masters Reality Int’l Concepts Limited should erect a billboard indicating that the old market had been relocated to the new one.

Also, the parties set up a relocation committee headed by the immediate past Executive Secretary of Ikeja Local Government, Alhaji Adekunle Dally-Adeokun. Other members include the Managing Director of Masters Reality Int’l Concept, Mr. Lai Omotola and the Iyaloja of the market.

The parties agreed that the relocation committee should ensure that all traders “relocate from the old market on or before July 18, the date set aside for the inauguration of the alternative market.”

The parties warned that all illegal occupants under the aegis of Concerned Traders in Alade Market should desist from disrupting the relocation of the old market to the alternative place.

After the meeting at the weekend, the sole administrator noted that out of the 299 allotees in the old market, 260 had collected their allocation papers after paying the allocation fee of N150, 000.

He added that the new Alade market which “is located about 150 metres away from the old market, off Obafemi Awolowo Way, Ikeja seats on three hectares of land. It has 504 lock-up shops, 200 units of open stalls, 20 toilets, 350kva and 150kva generators, three boreholes as well as an ample car park that can take up to 350 cars at a time among others.”

The relocation to the alternative market would pave way for the construction of Alade Shopping Market, a project that valued N6.9billion according to the concession agreement in 2010.

The concessionaire secured foreign loan in 2014 at a rate of N157, though the exchange had increased to N280 with a difference of N123 and had the catastrophic effect on our cash flow and the amount of erosion on our profitability.