Former presidential candidate of the Labour Occasion (LP), Peter Obi, has criticised the current demolition of outlets at Lagos’s Aspamda Market, describing the train as “a punishment far exceeding any alleged infraction” and urging authorities to indicate compassion in the direction of displaced merchants.
Obi made the remarks on social media after visiting the demolished part of the Lagos Worldwide Commerce Honest Complicated in Ojo.
The demolitions, carried out on 25 September, affected greater than 19 plazas and destroyed items price billions of naira, in accordance with merchants.
“This demolition is not only about buildings; it’s about individuals’s livelihoods,” Obi wrote. “Governance should steadiness legislation with compassion. A authorities shouldn’t pleasure itself on being legally right if, within the course of, it turns into morally mistaken.”
Lagos State officers mentioned the train focused unlawful buildings constructed with out correct permits and encroaching on drainage channels, warning that such developments contributed to flooding.
Obi, who visited the positioning alongside Labour Occasion figures together with Senators Enyinnaya Abaribe and Victor Umeh, referred to as the demolition an act of financial injustice.
“To destroy authentic investments with out due course of is unjust and harmful,” he mentioned, pledging to press for a parliamentary inquiry.
The Lagos State authorities, nevertheless, accused Obi of politicising the difficulty.
Info Commissioner Gbenga Omotoso mentioned the previous Anambra governor was “spreading misinformation” and famous that relocation choices had been supplied to merchants. “No authorities takes pleasure in demolitions, however guidelines have to be adopted,” he mentioned.