Kenneth Afor
A section of the popular Festac Town Second-Gate Market the in Amuwo-Odofin area of Lagos State was on Monday set ablaze allegedly by one Hajia Ikenga, the leader of the market, over the refusal of the to pay their monthly rents.
Goods including shoes, clothes, bags, hair extensions, cosmetics, and other non-edible items worth millions of naira were burnt in the inferno.
According to some of the traders who spoke to Newsbreak, their refusal to pay is as a result of a court order, which issued an injunction halting the collection of rents pending the determination of a case filed against Ikenga by the traders.
The traders claimed that the market leader hired touts, who broke into the affected shops around 2 am and carted away some of their goods before setting the shops ablaze.
Ihuoma Ohanehi, one of the traders whose shop was affected, said Ikenga has been intimidating them and would, sometimes, hire touts to beat them up for refusing to pay.
Ohanehi said the market leader had on 23 January came to the market with touts to collect money from them despite the court order that she should not collect money from them,.
He stated following the traders’ refusal to pay and insistence on the court order, Ikenga went ahead to set the shops on fire.
“This woman (Hajia Ikenga) used to beat us, intimidate us, she went to hire some touts, if you say anything they will beat you up, they behave anyhow here.
“On Saturday, they came here to collect money from us despite the court order, we’ve not been paying them we will tell them we don’t have money but sometimes we will pay her so that we can sell our goods.
“For the past two weeks, they’ve been threatening us with their security that one day they will set fire on the shops because we don’t compensate them.
“It was around 2:00 am in the morning somebody called me that our shops are burning, so, we hurriedly came to the market, they opened the shops with hammer and took away the goods before setting the shops on fire. They’ve seized the goods. The security guards were here, they did not make any call to us that our shops were on fire,” he said.
Another trader, Ike Okonkwo, said he was unable to evacuate his goods (male and female clothes) from his shop before it was set ablaze.
According to him, he has lost up to N10 million worth of goods. He revealed that the traders pay the sum of N150,000 monthly to the said Hajia Ikenga as rent.
“We woke up this morning and saw what happened. Although, they’ve been threatening us that they want to collect shop rent despite the fact that the case is still in court ordering us not to pay for now but still, the market leader has been asking us to pay.
“We pay up to N150,000 monthly without receipt on the land we bought for N500,000 despite that they still collect money from us.
“I lost goods worth N10 million inside my shop, I didn’t bring out anything from the shop. They’ve been threatening us that they will destroy the market. Even yesterday, (Sunday), they came around demanding for the money.
“The fire was set up this morning despite the presence of security guards in the market and we’ve been asking them how come the shop were set on fire when they were still around.
“The broke into some people’s shops went away with their goods before setting up the fire. We don’t understand how it happened, they could not explain to us how it happened,” said Okonkwo.
Also speaking, Dubem Michael said: “This morning I came here and met my shop burnt. What actually happened was that this land is in court and after everything the court ordered the leaders, Hajia Ikenga and Iya Dada not to enter the market until the court decides.
“After the court order, the woman refused, brought some touts to beat up those who refused to pay their rent. One Haruna came here the other day threatening us saying that since we refused to pay, Hajia Gaskia will come and and demolish the place.
“In my shop, I have nothing less than one thousand pairs of men’s shoes that I sell between N5,000 to N6,000 each and over 200 packs of towels,” he said.
However, the said Hajia Ikenga and the touts she hired absconded after the incident, according to the traders.
Our reporter made effort to get in touch with the Divisional Police Officer (DPO) of Festac Town Police Station for more details of the incident. However, the station’s Divisional Crime Officer (DCO) said the DPO was not around to respond to enquires.
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