Traders protest  LAWMA’s closure of Trade Fair complex

By Brown Chimezie and Obidike Jerry

Traders  under the umbrella of Trade Fair  stakeholders  forum have cried out over the shutdown  of their bussiness  premises by officials of Lagos Waste Management  Authority (LAWMA) without notice.

Trade Fair Stakesholders Forum is the umbrella body of the 62 associations in the complex.

In a statement  jointly issued by Chief Eric Ilechukwu (chairman), Chief Daniel Oforkansi (BoT chairman. Chief), Kenneth Ugbaja ( Secretary ) and Osy Ekpunobi, Financial Secretary, the association lamented  that  the closure of the market today  Monday  has cost traders at BBA and its environs billion of Naira.

While appealing  to the Lagos  State Governor, Mr Babajide Sanwo-Olu, to intervene by calling LAWMA management  to order Chief Ilechukwu,  said traders in the complex are law abiding and has internal mechanism with which they manage waste and they have also been paying their waste rates to the appropriate  quarters. “ So we are surprised that they would come to our marked without notice and sealed it off.”

In a sealed order notice pasted on the gate of the complex,Managing Director of Lagos State Waste Management Agency (LAWMA), Muyiwa Gbadegesin, said the authority’s decision to shut down the markets was arrived at after several warnings about their non-compliance with the state’s Environmental Protection Laws.