Finally, Alade Market Gives Way for $50m Shopping Mall

Tinubu endorses market
redevelopment plan

Gboyega Akinsanmi
After a 20-year protracted disagreement between traders and Ikeja Local Government Area, the structure of old Alade Market was yesterday dismantled and its entire land area fenced off, finally giving way for the construction of $50 million shopping mall.

The concessionaire of Alade Shopping Mall, Master Reality International Concept Ltd took over the old market after the Lagos State Government and the President-General of Association of Commodity Market Women and Men, Chief Folashade Tinubu-Ojo, endorsed the shopping mall.

Consequently, the demolition of the old market put paid to the agitation of some traders under the aegis of Association of Concerned Traders in Alade Market to scuttle the redevelopment plan, which they said would create thousands of jobs directly and indirectly.

At the new market yesterday, Tinubu-Ojo commended the government and the market concessionaire for the N6.9billion redevelopment plan of the market, noting that nobody “can halt the redevelopment of the market.

“When this was about happening few years ago, my late grand-mother Alhaji Abibatu Mogaji, former Iyaloja-General called a meeting between the officials of the government and the market leadership.

“At the meeting, Alhaja Mogaji instructed that before the redevelopment a conducive location not far from the old site must be provided for the traders. And all parties agreed,” she added.

After Alhaja Mogaji’s demise three years ago, Tinubu-Ojo acknowledged that she had held “meetings twice with the traders in the market. Also, they visited our secretariat thrice.”

She said the meetings offered all traders the opportunity “to apply for shops after the market redevelopment. After the meetings, they assured me they accepted the outcome of the meeting. But on arrival at the market, they vowed to approach the court and others.”

Tinubu-Ojo, however, said there was no controversy surrounding the project, saying the traders “have started moving to the new site to commence trading. The cost of the shop to the original allotees is N150, 000.
“But for fresh traders, the price is different. The price for the original allotees was for the purchase of the shop. The specification given to the concessionaire is being met,” she explained.

The president-general, therefore, enjoined few traders who still disgruntled about the development “to join hands with the government, the concessionaire and the traders to take the market into a new height.
“In order to ensure fairness, the traders have been told that they have opportunity to apply after the redevelopment of the market is completed, adding that all anyone who is interested in becoming a traders in the New Alade market was to buying allocation form.”

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