Sola Ogunbiyi
Palpable fear has gripped the residents and marketing public of Agbado Oke Odo market, Ile Epo in Lagos as a group of northern traders has threatened to protest against an appointee of the Lagos State government in charge of Lagos Environmental Sanitation Corps (LAGESC), formerly KAI, Operation simply identified as "Quazeem" who was alleged to have requested a huge some of money from the traders.
They said government official had dubiously requested the sum of #500, 000 from the traders after the market was shut by LAGESC management on Saturday, 9th May, 2020.
The corrupt Operation Marshal had promised to impress upon the LAGESC Management to open their market for them.
They said Operation Marshal also threatened to deal with them (the Hausa traders) if they never redeem his request.
It was reliably sourced that one of the marketers selling tomatoes and pepper had complained that, Quazeem sent his attack dogs to enter the traders stalls in the main market and they dispossessed them of their goods worth about #2million and other unrecorded valuables were missing.
Based on this, one of the marketers who revealed on condition of anonymity, informed that the market executives reported the matter to the Lagos State Commissioner of Police, Hakeem Odumosu, who ordered on Thursday, 14th May, 2020 that investigation be carried out on the matter and market be allowed to operate in accordance with the existing directive of the state government on market restrictions.
This timely intervention saved the traders, mostly of northern extraction and easy victims of extortion, from paying the huge sum to Quazeem, the syndicate Operation Marshal.
The LAGESC Management, championed by Kazeem felt aggrieved and continued to threaten the marketers since he had wished to establish a further moneymaking "bits" as he did at Computer Village Ikeja where he always harvests money from the traders in the market. This has led to serious bickering between the police establishment in Ile Epo and the LAGESC Management.
As of now, the marketers, mainly Hausa people, at Ile Epo are groaning under his extortion machinery having lost millions of Naira to his irrational exercise. This has painfully added to their COVID-19 lockdown losses they are yet to recover from.
Quazeem is a stinking, rotten, corrupt and despicable groundswell of illegal activities in LAGESC and all efforts of the state government will amount to nought if such a bad egg is allowed to roam government corridor without quarantine.
Source: People of Ile epo market
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