Hundreds of traders at popular Sabo Akarigbo Market in Sagamu, Ogun State on Thursday protested against alleged negligence by the state government on the reconstruction of the market which reportedly got burnt about a year ago.
The traders thronged the streets of Sagamu with placards with various inscriptions like ‘His Excellency, our market has been demolished; please help us’, ‘We are in the sun and dust. Our health is suffering, our businesses are dying.’
The Sabo market was on January 28, 2020 gutted by fire. It was reported that not less than 100 shops in the market were destroyed by the fire.
After the inferno, the state governor, Dapo Abiodun, promised to rebuild it for the traders.
However, a year after the incident, the traders lamented that the governor had not fulfilled his promise.
Speaking on behalf of the traders, Oluwakemi Ogunawo appealed to the governor to intervene by rebuilding the market before the coming raining season.
She said, “I want to plead with our governor, Dapo Abiodun. We are appealing to him to help in reconstructing this market for us because many of our colleagues in this market have died due to sun and dust.
“We are really suffering in Sabo market. We are appealing to him because it is a year now that this market got burnt and since a year, nothing was done here. The government gave us just four days to pack our goods when they wanted to demolish the remaining part.
“We have packed all our goods to the house; we are borrowing money to sell and for some weeks now, we have not been selling. People that we borrowed money from are dragging us to pay their money and we don’t have anywhere to sell the goods.”
In his reaction, the state Commissioner for Housing, Jagunmolu Omoniyi, promised to hand over not less than 200 shops as the first cluster to the traders by May 2021.
He further said, “The governor and his team have considered and approved the reconstruction of Sabo market, Sagamu.
“The first cluster, which is around 150 to 200 shops will be delivered to the market women and traders of Sabo, Sagamu, come May, 2021.”
