One person has been confirmed dead as
traders at the Ladipo Market, Oshodi, Lagos, on Thursday protested
against alleged extortion by one Monday Ijoba. It was learnt that Ijoba and his gang members were reportedly employed by the local government authority in the area to collect charges from the traders.
Displaying placards which read, “Monday, enough is enough”, among others, the traders chanted war songs. The market is dominated by Igbo traders who sell spare parts of vehicles and other electronic gadgets.
Policemen and
soldiers were immediately mobilised to the scene, but some of the protesters reportedly
fired gunshots to chase them away. During the protest, a trader, whose identity had yet to be identified, was hit by a stray bullet and died, while others were injured.
We learnt that Ijoba’s
boys had attacked a trader, who challenged them on the extortion last
week. The trader was seriously injured and was said to have eventually died. This caused the Thursday’s protest, which started around 9am, paralysing
commercial activities in the market. The rioters hurled bottles and other weapons at Ijoba’s gang members. This continurd for a few hours before the security operatives were able to restore normalcy to the area. Gadgets of some eyewitnesses who wanted to capture the incident were also seized, and photos taken from the scene were deleted.
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