Traders Sue Ambode, Arase, Others Over Market Closure

Traders of the Hajiya Ibrahim Commsie Shopping Complex, Police Barracks, Falomo, Ikoyi, Lagos, operating under the umbrella of POWA Market, have dragged the Lagos State Governor Mr. Akinwunmi Ambode, the Nigeria Police Force, the Inspector General of Police, Mr. Solomon Arase and others before the Federal High Court, Lagos over the closure of the market.

The plaintiffs, Messrs Iyoha Wilson, Osborn Atrogo, Sunday Usulor, among others, claimed that by virtue of Section 36(1) of the 1999 constitution the defendants, who alleged that the traders were “causing obstruction for road users” along Bourdillon Road, Falomo had not been heard, tried by a court of law, convicted or held liable before the defendants closed down the shops. They are therefore urging the court to declare the action as “unlawful, illegal, ultra vires, unconstitutional, null and void and of no legal consequence.”

They also prayed the court to declare the actions of the defendants as intimidation, threats, harassments’, deprivation of the plaintiff’s right to engage or carry out their lawful business of selling their goods, products, articles or rendering other services to their customers at the shops as unlawful.

The traders are seeking for an order directing the opening of their shops, and that the defendants, their counsels, officers of the court, officers of the Nigeria Police Force, the plaintiffs their counsel to open, enter and take inventory of all goods and property of the plaintiffs in the shops at the POWA Market. The also seek an order directing them to go return to their shops inside the POWA Market.

The traders prayed the court for an injunction restraining the defendants by themselves, their servants, police, agents, privies whosoever from continue or further stay for the purpose of prevention, hindering, threat, intimidating or stopping the plaintiffs to open their shops and or have free access into their shops, inclusive of arresting the plaintiffs or their members.

An order of injunction, restraining the defendants, or their servants, officers, staff KAI, agents from further altering, amending, constructing or rebuilding the walls at the front of the market, which is aimed at blocking the free flow of air into the shops. The traders are also claiming as damages N7,252,810,000.00 i.e. Seven billion, two hundred and fifty two million, Eight hundred and ten thousand naira only, made up and representing the loss of daily, weekly and monthly income from the non-sale of their goods, products and various articles of trade.

Comments

The story of how Nigeria’s census figures became weaponized - Feyi Fawehinmi

By Feyi Fawehinmi The story of Nigeria’s 1962 census never gets old. Southern politicians seeking to end the north’s dominance of Nigerian politics decided that the only way to do it was through the census. Population figures at the time determined not only parliamentary representation but also revenue allocation and employee distribution in the civil service. In May 1962, the first census under an independent Nigerian government began. There had been a frenzy of mobilization by politicians in the south of the country using pamphlets, radio, schools, churches and mosques. Although the final results were not made public, the preliminary results were quite clear as to what had happened: the north’s population had gone up from 16.5 million in the last census in 1952 to 22.5 million, an increase of 30%. But in some parts of the east, the population had increased by up to 200% and more than 70% in general. The west also reported an increase of 70%. What the preliminary results showed...

FG borrows N3.38bn To Aid Potato Production in Plateau

The Federal Executive Council (FEC) wednesday approved N3.38 billion to boost the production of potatoes in Plateau State. The Minister of Finance, Mrs. Kemi Adeosun, who made the disclosure said the money would be borrowed from Agricultural Development Bank (ADB) with one per cent interest rate and 25 years moratorium. The minister who said the loan was not fresh, explained that it had previously been cancelled by the federal government with the intention to make a fresh request for the loan on behalf of Plateau State which she said was responsible for 95 per cent of potato production in the country. According to her, following ADB’s comprehensive programme on potato production in Plateau State, 100,000 families and 17 local government areas of Plateau State would benefit from the loan while 60,000 jobs would be created by the initiative. “My approval was on behalf of Plateau State to support the potato value chain. There is a loan that we had previously cancelled from ...

The Cambridge Analytica files: the story so far

What are the allegations against Cambridge Analytica? The data analytics firm used personal information harvested from more than 50 million Facebook profiles without permission to build a system that could target US voters with personalised political advertisements based on their psychological profile, according to Christopher Wylie, a former Cambridge Analytica contractor who helped build the algorithm. Employees of Cambridge Analytica, including the suspended CEO Alexander Nix, were also filmed boasting of using manufactured sex scandals, fake news and dirty tricks to swing elections around the world. How is Facebook involved in the scandal? The social media company has received a number of warnings about its data security policies in recent years and had known about the Cambridge Analytica data breach since 2015, but only suspended the firm and the Cambridge university researcher who harvested user data from Facebook earlier this month. A former Facebook manager has warned tha...

ATTENCAO

Search This Blog