Alade market is a ghetto, unfit for megacity —Govt •Says relocation irrevocable

The Lagos State government has declared on Monday that relocation of the popular Alade Market to a new site is irreversible, tagging it unfit for the state’s mega city status.

Commissioner for Local Government and Community Affairs, Muslim Folami, made this declaration when he met with stakeholders of the market at the Government Secretariat, Alausa in Ikeja, Lagos.

This was just as the concessionaire of Alade Market, The Master Reality International Concepts Limited (MRICL), assured that the market, which traders began to relocate into a week earlier, was safe and ready for business.

The commissioner lamented the state of the structure in the old Alade Market, describing it as obsolete and unbefitting of a megacity like Lagos.

Folami, who noted he had visited the new site where traders were already relocating, said the place was well built with modern facilities to enhance the megacity status of Lagos, adding that: “we don’t need a ghetto (old Alade Market) in a megacity. Those traders who are still recalcitrant, that is their problem.”

The commissioner commended the traders who had already relocated to the new site, urging them to maintain peace as the state government was ready to support them.

Speaking at the press briefing, the GMD of MRICL, Mr Omotola, said the construction of the market was done with adequate consideration for the security, safety and comfortability of both the marketers and their customers.

“This is a N6.9 billion partnership project. We gave the shop owners six years notice despite that the Local Government has been on the issue of relocating the market for over 20 years. In this facility, we have 504 shops, meanwhile the mandate is to build 300 shops, but we extended it. We have 350KVA generator and another 150KVA generator. We built 20 toilets and 200 key-clamps.”

The MRICL boss said that those still agitating for one thing or the other were not the real traders in Alade Market, adding that, in the last two weeks, real traders who had paid for their shops had been moving into the new market peacefully.

He disclosed that the old market had been sealed off as it was now empty, describing the relocation as “a seemless transition from Old Alade Market to New Alade Market.”