Ogun traders protest govt eviction order

FILE: Ogun State Governor, Dapo Abiodun

Artisans and traders operating around Arepo Junction in Obafemi Owode Local Government Area of Ogun State have protested an eviction order reportedly issued by the state government.

The affected traders, including car dealers and welders, said they had occupied the area since 2005 after obtaining permission from the Federal Government and paying for the use of the space.

Saturday PUNCH learnt that the Ogun State Ministry of Environment, on September 8, 2026, served the car dealers with abatement notices directing them to vacate the area with immediate effect.

Speaking on behalf of the traders, a welder, Alhaji Taiwo Alaka, alleged that the eviction notice was targeted at occupants in their area, rather than the entire road setback stretching from Berger in Lagos State to Ibadan in Oyo State.

Alaka said the traders had no alternative location to move to after operating at the site for more than two decades.

“The place was given to us through the Federal Ministry of Works and Housing, and we have been paying for it. But some officials of the Ogun State Ministry of Environment have been coming to chase us out of the state.

“We have been here since 2005. We don’t have any other place to go,” he said.

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A copy of the receipt obtained by Saturday PUNCH showed that one of the occupants, Mr Joshua Oyeniyi, paid N276,000 to the Federal Ministry of Works and Housing, Ogun State office, for the use of the space from April 1, 2021, to March 31, 2026.

Oyeniyi said the state government had earlier brought a caterpillar to the area to demolish the traders’ structures before eventually serving them with the eviction notice.

However, the state Commissioner for Environment, Ola Oresanya, said the affected traders were not being singled out, describing the exercise as a routine enforcement carried out across the state.

The commissioner, who spoke with our correspondent on the telephone on Thursday, said the Federal Ministry of Works and Housing lacked the authority to allocate roadside spaces to individuals for trading.

Oresanya advised the protesters to direct their complaints to the authorities to whom they had been making payments.

He also urged the affected persons to approach his office for further clarification if they wished to understand the government’s position on the exercise.