Encomium
Former traders occupying Ogba retail market (Ikeja, Lagos) are lamenting low patronage since they moved to the new site allocated to them by the government.
A visit to the new market located some ‘treckable’ distance from the old site revealed that construction work is still ongoing in most of the stalls, and traders are yet to fully settle down for business.
According to one of the traders who pleaded anonymity, sales is yet to pick up as they are just settling down in their new environment
” I relocated to this new place last month, though I moved my things from the demolished site since August. Sales is just too slow over here, most people are not yet aware of this new place. We hope things would pick up within the next couple of days.”
According to Mallam Umar, “We were relocated here a couple of weeks back but business is still very slow for now. The case of demolition was in court for a very long time, so we knew this time would come. I pray business would pick up very soon”.
Speaking also on condition of anonymity, an accessory and clothes seller stated, “We paid N280,000 while some paid N260,000 to become shop owners over here. I have not sold an item since I moved in three weeks ago. I just hope people would start patronising us soon.”
– Shade Metibogun and Sukurat Alimi
