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By Lukman Olabiyi
Traders at Aguiyi Ironsi section of Ladipo International Spare Parts Market in Mushin Local Government, Lagos State have called on Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu to caution the council chairman, Emmanuel Bamigboye, for allegedly sowing the seed of disunity in the market.
The traders accused Bamigboye of selfish interest with the manner he controls the traders’ union activities and by imposing his stooge as their leader. The traders expressed their dismay at various actions of Bamigboye which they described as an attempt to undermine the union’s Constitution.
Speaking on behalf of the traders at a press conference held in the market, yesterday, their chairman, Chukwuma Onyebinanma, gave a detailed account of how Bamigboye and his cohort suddenly picked interest in traders’ union activities. The traders accused the LG chairman of trying to impose non executive members of their union on them, to be collecting union dues.
“Since the creation of this market, what we are witnessing today has never happened before, and that is why we are all surprised. First, it has never happened since the history of this market that the council chairman would stop the already scheduled election of traders’ union, but it happened this year.
“Mushin Local Government claimed that our election should be suspended because of the Federal Government election. Later, the council boss told us that some of the contestants needed more time to do effective campaigns, so we must shift the election earlier slated for January 28, 2023, in order to avoid any form of crisis, and we fixed a new date.
“Finally, the election was conducted on February 4, 2023. The election was very transparent, free and fair. I won the chairmanship position. The LG chairman felt aggrieved that his preferred candidate did not win, sent a letter that I and the other newly elected officers should not be sworn in.
“We went to find out why, but no reason was given to us although we found out that Bamigboye and his team wanted to set up a caretaker committee and impose his preferred candidate on us as chairman. Based on our constitution, the new executives were sworn in, and after our swearing in, the LG boss called us to a meeting and told us to appoint non-executive members of the union to be collecting dues for us or he would shut down the market,” he said.
