By Evelyn Usman

The popular Yaba market, Lagos was again in the news, following it’s immediate closure by the Lagos State government, Tuesday, over an alleged attack on officials of the Kick Against Indiscipline (KAI), by the traders. The traders were alleged to have used dangerous weapons such as cutlasses and broken bottles on the officials, some of whom sustained various degrees of injuries.

The state Commissioner for Environment, Mr Tunji Bello, who was visibly angry with the attackers, gave the order, informing that the injured officials had been hospitalized.

According to him, the traders obstructed KAI officials while performing their official duties and the officials suffered bodily harm and were admitted at the intensive care Unit of the Lagos State University Teaching hospital.

Also reacting on the attack, spokesman for KAI, Mr Tunde Olusesi, in a statement, asserted that “the traders attacked the KAI officials with weapons such as cutlasses, knives, broken bottles, among others. In the process, a female senior official of the KAI Brigade, Shade Agbalajobi, was stabbed on the face, very close to one of her eyes, while another was injured on the head. Another was stabbed on the chest while others sustained injuries on different parts of their body.”

• Injured KAI woman

But in a swift reaction, the traders described the allegation as a blatant lie , claiming that no trader from the market attacked the officials. Rather, they lamented the severe ill treatment and continuous harassment on them by the officials.

One of them who gave his name as Ifeanyi Onyebuchi said his goods were on two occasions seized by the officials. Ifeanyi who claimed to have owned a make-shift shop before its demolition by the present administration, said the amount charged for shops is exorbitiant.

Hear him, “ One cannot afford to pay for the shop. What those of us affected did was to pay for little space in front of the shops where we display our wares. But this KAI officials would not allow us a moment of peace. I am not a thief and I have never been arrested by the police for any criminal act .

But the KAI people have on two occasions, seized my goods . The first time, I paid N2000 to get them back and the second time, they took them away on the ground that I was not selling inside the shop.

“Why would they be making life miserable for us, particularly those of us that are not Yorubas?”, he asked.

Another trader who identified himself as Muyiwa Oye said, “ These KAI people are liars. They know who attacked them and should therefore go and look for them. They are the ones that are making lives difficult for those of us who are barely managing to eat. Those who attacked them could be road side traders and not us from the main market.

“Everybody, including the government are blaming us, but none has sat down to ask why they were attacked. Is it that they were doing the right thing and were attacked? Nobody can attack you for doing the right thing. Or did I attack you now for wanting to know what happened? They should look inwards and amend their ways rather than making life difficult for people?”

Other traders who did not want their names in print pleaded with the government to temper justice with mercy, calling for an intensive investigation that would bring the culprits to book rather than making them suffer for a crime they knew nothing about.