Oby Ezekwesili tells Sanwo-Olu: Demolition of Alaba market is political attack on Igbos

Oby Ezekwesili, former minister of education, has challenged Lagos Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu to provide evidence that the demolition of unfit structures at Alaba market is not a political attack on Igbos.

“Governor, please immediately publish details of each destroyed building and the dateline of Due Process rules that were exhausted by your Government before it was “removed,” Ezekwesili said. “It will be wise for the Governor to take this counsel on Transparency and Full Disclosure since it would provide evidence to the public that this is not a vengeful political attack against the predominant Igbo community in Alaba Market.”

Ezekwesili posed the question to the Lagos governor in a tweet on Tuesday, while also warning President Bola Tinubu to be careful in brewing “terribly toxic atmosphere against fellow citizens”.

“Let me also use this opportunity to really again advise the @followlasg and its cheerleaders including @officialABAT to be careful in persisting to brew a terribly toxic atmosphere against fellow citizens since before, during and after the 2023 elections,”Ezekwesili said.

Ezekwesili’s intervention comes as the Lagos State government embarked on the demolition of distressed buildings in Nigeria’s largest electronics market, the Alaba International Market.

Some traders in the market on Sunday alleged that the state government did not give any prior notice before starting demolition. But Lagos State Building Control Agency general manager, Gbolahan Oki, said 17 buildings in the Ojo Local Government Area where the market is situated have been assessed and approved for demolition.

Lagos, a state in Yoruba’s South-West geo-political region and Nigeria’s most cosmopolitan and commercial city, is a melting pot for Yorubas, Igbos and other ethnic groups coexisting peacefully. However, last general election in which Tinubu was defeated by the presidential candidate of the Labour Party Peter Obi, in Lagos in the February 25th presidential election, elicited ethnic tension.