Ambode orders fencing of Lagos markets to stop street trading

Lagos State governor, Mr Akinwunmi Ambode, has given a marching order to all the 20 Local Governments (LGs) and 37 Local Council Development Areas (LCDAs) to embark on fencing of markets in the state to curb menace constituted by market spillover.

Commissioner for Environment, Dr. Babatunde Adejare, disclosed this on Saturday while monitoring the July edition of the monthly environmental sanitation exercise in Alimosho area of the state.

Adejare lamented the entrenched practice of leaving the market shop owners to trade on roads, saying such was currently causing traffic congestion around market areas in the state.

“It is the governor’s directive that all markets should be fenced. For instance, I shut Obele-Oniwahala Market in Surulere three days ago. We will fence the market and protect the infrastructure within it. We spent millions constructing the infrastructure but residents destroy them.”

“Though the establishment of markets is not the state government responsibility, but we will continue to supervise them to make the market effective.

“The aim of fencing the markets is to restrict them to the location earmarked for the market. If anyone intends to deal with them, he or she should go into the market,” the commissioner said.

Adejare said the state government was considering setting up mobile court in local government areas to tackle their challenges.

“And part of the solution that we are trying to bring to the councils, though we are still discussing it at the Executive Council, is that they should have mobile courts.

“We believe that if they have it, they could be able to enforce their bye-laws effectively and charge offenders to court. They are the nearest government to the people and if we would get issues right, it will be from them. There contribution to development of the state will be unquantifiable if they get it right. We will continue to encourage them (council) to do better,” the commissioner.

He also said that the state government was carrying out waste management reform at the state levels, adding that the waste management reform would affect the local governments too.

“We have incorporated them into the reform. And I can assure you that by the end of the first quarter next year (March), waste management will change in Lagos,” he said.