Traders shut Ogun mall Buhari commissioned over illegal allocation

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Traders in Adire/ Kampala fabrics at the Itoku market, Abeokuta, have shut the newly inaugurated Adire/Kampala Mall inaugurated last month  by President Muhammadu Buhari in the twilight of Governor Ibikunle Amosun’s administration in Ogun state.

The Mall was built by Amosun’s led administration, who governed the state for eight years on the ticket of the All Progressives Congress (APC) but the traders – 169 of them, forcefully shut the mall at the weekend on grounds that Amosun, allegedly, allocated it to only his cronies and people suspected to be members of the Allied People’s Movement (APM).

The traders who protested the illegal allocation of spaces  to people who are neither traders nor dealers in Kampala/Adire in Itoku market, also petitioned Governor Adedapo Abiodun and the Ogun State House of Assembly, praying the two to look into the lopsided allocations and  reverse it.

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The aggrieved traders also vowed  to resist  the re-opening  of the mall  until  the alleged lopsidedness and injustice were addressed by the new government of Abiodun .

The traders in the petition by  their legal adviser, Idowu Adepeju, from Idowu Adepeju and Co Chamber,  also accused former governor Amosun of giving the newly constructed  mall to people that were not traders at the market or those whose shops were demolished.

They alleged that a sum of N10,000 was paid by each of them to obtain a form from the past government as a requirement for  allocation  of shops but lamented that no shops were allocated to them afterwards.

The traders  called on the Governor and the  leadership of the State Assembly to review the allocation made by the immediate past government.

The  petition reads: “My clients are  complaining of illegal allocation of the shops in the Adire Mall shopping Complex at  Itoku  market  to the members of Allied  Peoples Movement  by the Amosun-led administration on his last day in office, 28 th May, 2019.

“The worst of it is that, many of the purported allottees were alloted four shops each, and they were not traders at all, neither were they known in Itoku market, while my clients (169 Kampala traders in Itoku market) were not allowed any shop at all.

“Whereas, the same Amosun-led administration collected the sum of ten thousand naira from each of my clients.

“It is this injustice that we passionately appeal to your excellency to correct.”