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By Dickson Okafor
Rising from an emergency meeting, a group known as Concern Integrity Traders Forum (CITF) has issued seven days ultimatum to the Lagos International Trade Fair Management Board (LITFMB) to stop the ongoing construction of an illegal building at the Abia Plaza in Balogun Business Association (BBA), International Commerce Centre, Trade Fair Complex, Lagos.
The group threatened to stage a protest against the construction of the illegal structure and called on the Federal Government and Lagos State Government to intervene in the matter.
Coordinator of the group, Comrade Chinonso Wisdom Uba, said they resolved to restore the original Master Plan of the complex insisting that the illegal building which is under construction where original offloading Bay and car park of Abia Plaza must stop.
Daily Sun gathered that on September 1, 2025 the illegal structure under construction caused a serious accident when a container -bearing trailer fell on the building under construction in Abia Plaza injuring scores of persons and destroying shops and goods which triggered protest in the area.
To avoid a repeat, the angry traders called on the management board of the complex to stop the construction of the illegal building.
He said: “The Management Board through the Executive Director, Dr. Veronica Ndanusa, assured the traders and major stakeholders that the illegal construction would be demolished, but we are surprised that since then work is still going on mainly on weekends at midnight”.
In his reaction, Chief Emma Otunabo, a major stakeholder, expressed dismay over sudden silence of the management board of the complex over their assurance to demolish all illegal structures and buildings that are situated at spaces against the Master Plan of the Lagos International Trade Fair Complex.
He confirmed that the space where the said illegal building under construction was originally the offloading Bay and car park, but has been allegedly sold to some people to construct a plaza thereby distorting the original master plan.
He called on the management board of the complex to fulfill its promise to return the complex to its original master plan by demolition of the all illegal structures, including the building under construction at the Abia Plaza, in order to prevent the planned protest to be staged by angry traders whose are living in danger because the illegal structure is a hindrance to traffic in Abia Gate.
He said, “It is obvious that the atmosphere is fully charged with angry traders ready to stage protests against continuous illegal construction in places that are mapped out as offloading Bay and car park”.
All attempts by the reporter to reach the officials of the LITFMB proved abortive.
