Mushin and Oshodi areas of Lagos came to a halt today as the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Candidate for the state, Mr. Jimi Agbaje, took his campaign to the trading communities in Ladipo, Idi-Oro, Oshodi and Ikeja.
He promised to improve the sanitary conditions in the Ladipo Auto Spare Parts Market and the welfare of its occupants, by building a pedestrian bridge at the Toyota Bus-Stop access of the market, as well as establishing a system of overnight waste management.
Agbaje’s entourage, which included his Running Mate, Alhaja Safurat Abdulkarim, had been met with shouts of: “PDP! Power!”
The crowd of admirers, comprising cyclists and traders, flowed through the Matori area and blocked the Apapa-Oshodi expressway, with many of them chanting:
“You don win!”
“Make una no share money, we go vote for una!”
“No more Tinubu!”
Addressing the mammoth crowd of cheering traders at Ladipo auto market, Agbaje said that from May 29, they would witness an end to the era of impunity that they had suffered at the hand of the Lagos State Government, with incessant shutting of their business place over different excuses.
“I am a business man and I want to assure you that I know what it means to close your market at the slightest opportunity.
He equally condemned the imposition of a Babaloja (Market leader) on the market which is dominated by Igbos.
“I want to assure you that we shall reverse this and stop multiple taxations because it is against the principle of natural justice,” he said.
He lamented that for all the revenue the market generated for the state, it lacked government presence.
The President-General of the Ladipo Central Executive Auto Dealers’ Association, Comrade Ikechukwu Animalu, told Agbaje that the sprawling market hosted about 5,000 shops with over 20,000 occupants.
Animalu complained that traders operated under a harsh regime of levies and charges imposed by the state government and the council, with no commensurate services.
Agbaje said that a PDP government under him would discharge its responsibility of maintaining sanitation in the market, instead of blaming Ladipo businesses for improper waste disposal.
“The way it is going to work is that when Ladipo traders are closing in the evening, the cleaners would be resuming to clean up the place in preparation for the following morning’s business,” he said. “That is the way it works in other places in the world. And I see no reason why we cannot achieve it here.”
Agbaje and his team had stopped over at the Idi-Oro electronics complex, where he addressed the traders there.
Leaders of Ladipo complained that non-indigenes were being denied their Permanent Voters’ Cards by agents of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) colluding with the All Progressives Congress (APC).
Acknowledging the crucial value that the market contributed to the Lagos economy, Agbaje said it would be accorded its pride of place under a PDP government.
He said he knew that the traders needed a pedestrian bridge for the safety of the patrons and users of the market.
He also promised to build toilets for Ladipo Market.
“It is not proper that Ladipo should be without a toilet,” he said. “We will provide toilet facilities for Ladipo and other markets in the state.”
According to him, the neglect the market suffered manifested in its bad access roads, a problem that would receive attention from the PDP regime in the state.
FELIX OBOAGWINA
DIRECTOR OF MEDIA AND PUBLICITY TO MR. JIMI AGBAJE, PDP GOVERNORSHIP CANDIDATE FOR LAGOS STATE
Social Media Department
