On Friday morning, heavily armed policemen stormed the popular phone and digital market known as Tarmac in the Panseke neighborhood of Abeokuta, Ogun State, and ordered the traders to leave because there was a court order requiring them to do so.
TheNigerian Metro observed that there were several police officers present in the market, and that the vendors were hanging out close to their locked and keyed establishments.
Some of the traders who spoke with our correspondent said that there had been recurrent instances of land squatters coming to ask them to leave the market, which has placed their company at risk.
Akeem Oyeyemi, a merchant, claimed that the police arrived early on Friday to eject them from their establishments after displaying a court order that they were unaware of.
“What happened was that we received a call this morning at around 5 a.m. stating that roughly 200 police officers had invaded the road with about 20 cars, and our chairman also advised us to begin arriving. We collected here and headed to the Olubara’s palace at around 6 a.m.
“We returned here from the palace to meet the police and inquire as to what had occurred. When the police arrived, they displayed a court order ordering them to lock up Tarmac, but we objected, saying that we had not received any notification of any court orders and that we thought we should have been informed if Tarmac needed to be locked up.
“So we decided that we should be able to open our stores, but the cops opened fire, forcing everyone to flee for their lives. We haven’t been able to open our shops up until now,” Oyeyemi remarked.
Another vendor who requested anonymity said that there has been a recurrent problem with land speculators visiting the market and asking vendors to leave.
“Some people who are land squatters have been coming to this market to beg us to leave but later we will hear that our leaders has resolved with them,” she said. The situation is worrying and has an impact on our business.
It was unsuccessful to contact Ifebola Togunwa, chairman of the market association, for a response because he did not answer calls or messages left at his number.
The Ogun State Police Command Public Relations Officer, Omolola Odutola, contacted us via WhatsApp chat and inquired if our correspondent was at the scene of the incident. Our correspondent responded in the affirmative and even sent pictures of the scene, but she had not yet responded after reading the message when we filed this report.
TheNigerian News had reported on Wednesday that the Ogun State House of Assembly claimed that police officers in the state were conspiring with some land speculators to unlawfully arrest and jail innocent bystanders.
Olakunle Oluomo, Speaker of the Assembly, urged the Inspector General of Police to intervene in the unlawful arrest and detention of hundreds of state residents who were still being held in various police detention facilities at Alagbon in Lagos and the Force Headquarters in Abuja.
