Ex-minister Ezekwesili tasks Sanwo-Olu on Alaba Market demolition
Former education minister Oby Ezekwesili has pressed Lagos Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu to show that the destruction of unsafe buildings at Alaba Market is not a political affront to Igbos.
“Mr. Governor, kindly publish information on each damaged building as well as the date by which your government exhausted all available due process avenues before it was “removed,” demanded Mrs. Ezekwesili. The governor would be prudent to heed this advice regarding transparency and full disclosure since it will show the public that this is not a vindictive political attack against the Igbo community, which predominates in Alaba Market.
In a tweet on Tuesday, Mrs. Ezekwesili asked the Lagos governor the question and cautioned President Bola Tinubu against creating a “terribly toxic atmosphere against fellow citizens”.
Let me also take this occasion to urge @followlasg and its supporters, such as @officialABAT, to exercise caution in continuing to foster a highly poisonous environment against other people before, during, and after the 2023 elections, Mrs. Ezekwesili stated.
The intervention by Mrs. Ezekwesili comes as the Lagos State government begins demolishing troubled structures at the Alaba International Market, Nigeria’s largest electronics market.
On Sunday, some market vendors claimed that the state administration failed to provide any advance notification before beginning demolition. However, the general manager of the Lagos State Building Control Agency, Gbolahan Oki, claimed that 17 buildings in the Ojo Local Government Area, where the market is located, have been evaluated and given the go-ahead for demolition.
Lagos, the most cosmopolitan and commercial city in Nigeria and a state in the South-West geopolitical zone of the Yoruba people, is a melting pot where Yorubas, Igbos, and other ethnic groups live in harmony. However, the last general election, in which Mr. Tinubu lost to Peter Obi, the Labour Party’s presidential candidate, in Lagos on February 25, sparked ethnic unrest.
The All Progressives Congress thug Musiliu Akinsanya reportedly threatened Igbo voters who will not support the APC in the governorship race, telling them to stay inside, according to Media Reports.
After the March governorship election, Bayo Onanuga, who served as Mr. Tinubu’s spokesperson during the campaign, publicly campaigned for the outright expulsion of the Igbos from Lagos politics, portraying them as existential threats to Yorubas.
