Traders get December deadline to vacate Kara market

Ogun State government has given traders at the popular Kara Market in Isheri a 100-day ultimatum to relocate to the Ogere International Market along the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway.

The ultimatum expires on December 31, 2024, and allows for their phased movement. After that, the market will be reduced to ground zero with the demolition of all stalls, shanties, and makeover structures.

The Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Environment, Dr Sam Olugbenga Oyeleye, who disclosed this yesterday, said the state government decided to relocate the market to restore sanity due to the environmental degradation.

According to him, the state government is inundated daily with reports of unhealthy waste disposal and other environmental nuisances from the market, as well as open defecation on the median and road setbacks despite the provision of public toilets.

He said: “The state government will therefore not fold its hands and watch few individuals in the name of trading deface the environment and spread infectious diseases to millions of residents through open defecation, which they have failed to stop despite several sensitisation, appeals and arrests.

“Their bad attitude, which constitutes an eyesore, is also not in tandem with the state government’s policy of attracting investors to the state as the nation’s industrial hub, hence the need to relocate the market for the general good of the state.”

Also, Oyeleye said the Kara market had outlived its usefulness in the axis as it has no space for expansion and proper management; hence, the need to relocate it to the Ogere International Market, where traders will have more space and operate in a more controlled environment.