Election: No membership card,No vote – Ladipo Traders
By Ifeoma Ikem
The Aguiyi Ironsi International Market Traders Association in Ladipo, Mushin, Lagos, has debunked the allegations of harassment, intimidation, and threats to lives levelled against the executive members by an opposition group.
The opposition group has petitioned the Nigeria Police,claiming that they were beaten up by the executive of the market.
At a press conference on Thursday in his office in Ladipo Market, Chairman of the union,Mr. Chukwuma Onyebinamma ( aka Ikukuoma), denied the allegation that the union did not intimidated anyone.
Chukwuma explained that his only sin was to sanitize the market with some innovations brought into the market.
Onyebinamma, who was reacting to a newspaper publication,about a group of traders from the market who petitioned the Lagos State Government over alleged harassment, intimidation and threats to their lives by the market’s executive officers and the task force committee, explained that the group was trying to disrupt the peace in the market because of the oncoming election.
“The group reported me through a petition on July 25, 2024, addressed to the office of the Commissioner for Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs. They also reported me to the Commissioner of Police, Tactical Squad, in Surulere, Lagos, and the IGP’s Intelligence Response Team, Abuja that I was trying to disenfranchise people from voting, and intimidating them. What is my offence? It is just because I am collating a database of our members and giving them identity cards for proper identification. I don’t know when being security-conscious had become a crime.
“They are pained because the association has resolved that there will be a policy of ‘no identity card, no vote.’ It did not start today, but they are angry that, with proper identification of traders, the group will not be able to bring thugs and criminal elements into the market during election.
We have vowed that, if there is no identity card, no person will be allowed to vote. We have met many times and announced during meetings that people should pay their monthly dues of N200 which amounts to N2,400. It is from the monthly dues that we prepare the ID cards for members.
But the group that is taking us from one police department to another does not want peace in the market.
“Members of the group are doing some unhealthy things in the market. We are supposed to close by 6pm, but they will be in market till 8pm. All these we are trying to stop. Database and ID cards are part of the security measures that we must put in place in the international market.
“After showing the police three ID cards from two of my predecessors and my administration, the police commended my administration and said we should go back home and settle.
The board of trustees is trying to reconcile the two groups. Anyway, we have resolved that we must sanitize the market. We must get the database of every authentic member of the association. The election must be transparent. No ID card, no vote. I am running for a second tenure of three years because we have amended the constitution to fit into the entire markets structure in Lagos, where tenures are three years, because two years is too small to do anything. Even though I am running for re-election, I won’t tolerate rigging and misconduct. I must put things in the right order. If the people like me, let them vote for me; if they don’t, let them not. But for hoodlums to come in to vote, we won’t take it. That is why they are fighting me.”
The market leader declared that the accusations were false and he did not intimidate anyone. He said, on July 18, 2024, while in a general meeting, they got information that a group of people wanted to disrupt the meeting. So, the chief security officers and others prevented them for coming in.
“The group was armed with dangerous weapons, and my CSO was able to snatch a machete from one of them. We saw in a newspaper publication a man they claimed that my CSO inflicted with machete cuts, but the man whose photograph was used in the publication said it was a lie, that he was not inflicted with machete cuts and he did not know how they got his photograph.
The group went ahead to discourage traders from paying dues, including that of the government. For instance, the group was sending WhatsApp messages to people not to pay security dues, storage fee and that of the government, Motor Vehicle Administration Agency (MVA) dues. This is too bad. Just because we are putting things properly.”
In the petition by the opposition group signed by its lawyer, Liborous Oshoma, the traders claimed that they had been in the market for over a decade and had participated in the previous elections to select their market leaders.
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