By Job Osazuwa
A trader in Lagos, Princess Rosemary Edohen, has cried out to the Lagos State government and the security agencies for protection. She recently expressed worry over frequent harassment by fellow traders and some strangers at Onibaba Market, Achakpo, in the Ajegunle area of the state.
Edohen alleged that some hoodlums, purportedly sponsored by her colleagues in the market, stormed her shop a few weeks ago, and she was battered during the incident. She also claimed that N500,000, which her child gave her, was stolen during the fracas.
She said her trouble started with the issues surrounding the allocation and ownership of shops at the market. The crisis, Daily Sun gathered, started about 40 years ago, and has since remained irresolvable.
Edohen claimed that in the 1970s, she and other traders at Suru Alaba lost their shops, where they sold foodstuff, to the state government during a beautification drive by government in the area.
After rounds of protests by the traders, led by Edohen, the Lagos State government re-located them to the Onibaba Market, where they have remained till date. But she alleged that the space was without any structures. She recalled how she, in the 1980s, spent her personal money to bulldoze the bushy hectares of land and erected 96 shops on it.
Edohen stated that she was made the market leader, and the late Alhaja Abibatu Mogaji subsequently installed her as the Iyaloja of the then Ojo Local Government Area (LGA) as well as the Iyaloja of Surulere Market Association of Onibaba Market with a certificate to that effect.
She said her troubles started when some prominent personalities in the area suddenly emerged and began to claim that they owned the market. Edohen said her opponents connived with some officials at the local government council to perpetrate her oppression.
She recalled that, as a law-abiding citizen, she took the Ajeromi Ifelodun Local Government Area to court to demand what she said rightly belonged to her.
Showing the reporter different documents and certificates to authenticate her claims, she said the defendants pleaded with her to settle the matter out of court. The agreement, signed by the then chairman of the LGA, Prince Rabiu A. Oluwa, on March 15, 2002, on behalf of the defendants, and Edohen, on behalf of the plaintiffs, revealed how the latter would be compensated.
It read in part: “The local government shall give the plaintiffs a portion of land within the said market to construct two blocks of shops comprising 22 shops each at their own cost and the shops shall be in conformity in all respect to lock-up shops being constructed by the developer appointed by the local government.
“That the parties have agreed that the above terms be made judgment of this honourable court.”
She said after the demise of the former Iyaloja-general, Alhaja Mogaji, some people among the new market leaders have been intimidating her, with the intent to eject her from the market. She alleged that she had been beaten on many occasions while her adversaries laboured to get her sacked from the market she had laboured to build for years.
According to her, over the years, different groups have fought desperately to take over the shops that the local government directed to be given to her. She lamented that she had sold her two houses in the course of defending what was due to her at different courts and police stations.
In the quest for a lasting solution, she continued, she wrote a letter on June 16, 2017, to the Oba of Lagos, Riliwan Akiolu, pleading with him to intervene and resolve the issue, to restore peace to the market.
In his response on June 17, 2017, the monarch wrote to the Commissioner of Local Government and Community Affairs, Alhaji Folami, asking him to get the statement of other parties involved and to resolve the matter amicably. The oba said it was purely a market affair.
Edohen also accused the reigning Iyaloja-general, Folasade Tinubu-Ojo, of maintaining a long silence over the matter even when she had repeatedly brought the issue to her notice. She described Tinubu-Ojo’s silence as a nod for the evil to continue.
“The day I went to her house to complain about the injustice that I have been suffering in the hands of my oppressors, she pushed me out and I fell. I sustained minor wounds from the fall. My children were very bitter when they saw how I was manhandled. I had to buy some drugs to recover from the bruises.
“I cannot quantify everything that I have lost since the battle started, yet those behind my problem are still threatening to deal with me,” Edohen lamented.
When the reporter called Tinubu-Ojo on her mobile telephone, she said she was in a crucial meeting and could not discuss the issue at that moment and asked the caller to get back to her later.
“I can’t discuss now because I am in an important meeting; can you please call me back later? Rather, send me a text message,” she said.
However, she neither returned the reporter’s phone call nor responded to the text message sent to her.
Edohen is calling on the appropriate authorities to wade into the matter and help her to recover her shops and stolen money, and to also recognise her as the authentic Iyaloja of the market.