VI for the rich: road traders, workers asked to leave, KAI officers forcing compliance

 

The altercation between Iyabo Jimoh, a food vendor on Banana Island Road, Ikoyi, Lagos, and some officials of Kick Against Indiscipline was alien to the upscale neighbourhood. The commotion grew more intense as the 37-year-old trader fought tooth and nail to prevent about five officials from destroying a table she used in displaying bread and beans.

It was 2pm on Tuesday and the enforcement team was on a routine patrol in the highbrow community to sack street traders and remove illegal makeshift structures defacing the plush ambience.  The faceoff left Jimoh embittered as she scurried around to pick up loaves of bread thrown on the ground by one of the officials in the ensuing wrangling.

Why are you making life difficult for us? Task force men came yesterday (Monday) and packed everything,” she blustered, standing toe to toe with the official. “If the rich say they don’t want to see us around, who among them will help us to pay our children’s school fees or give us money to rent a shop?” she said, scowling at the team.

It took the intervention of a police officer and some artisans at a nearby workshop to prevail on the men from impounding her wares.

“I have been selling food here for over 20 years,” Jimoh told our correspondent after the team left. “I used to be inside that compound before the owner told me and other traders to leave,” she said pointing at an enclosed parcel of land close to her stand.

Except on Sundays, Jimoh resumes at the spot every day from Bariga — about 20 kilometres away — to sell food to domestic workers, labourers and artisans in the area.

“This is the only means I have to take care of my children,” the vendor said, trying to wash plates scattered on the floor. “I have five children and all of them are in school. Two of them are in secondary school while the three others are in primary school.”

She added, “The suffering is too much. If I had the means, I would rent a shop. The labourers working on building projects buy on credit from us till the end of the week when they will be paid. Some KAI officials would come and collect money from me. Earlier today, a team had collected N500 from me. This team would have also demanded money if not for their boss who followed them. Whenever they seize our wares, we pay N5,000 to N10,000 to recover them.”

Overlooked by Lagos lagoon, Victoria Island offers a classy comfort zone to wealthy individuals and corporate establishments seeking some sanity away from the bustling city.  From terraced buildings to high-rise mansions knitted by well-pruned flowers and beautiful trees dotting its landscape, VI houses many magnificent estates including Banana Island and Parkview Estate.

Many who reside in the alluring hood do so in the hope of escaping from the buzz of city life which is now creeping into their enclave.

Apart from Jimoh and other food vendors trading by the roadside, noisy drinking and smoking joints, premier lotto stands, roadside mechanic ‘workshop,’ and makeshift barber shops have become common sights in the community.

During a visit to the area, our correspondent saw about three joints along Banana Island Road. At a lawn some metres away from a T-junction of the road, a shabbily dressed man lying on the grass was seen puffing on a wrap of substance suspected to be Indian hemp.

Close to the Banana Island gate, a dark-complexioned young man clad in blue jeans and a blue top was seen sauntering around bare-footed with a smoke smoldering in-between his left fingers.

We don’t have anything to say,” a tough-looking young man who’s a member of a clique in one of the joints said when approached by Saturday PUNCH. “You can talk to other people on the street,” he added dismissively before gulping a sachet of gin.

A roadside mechanic, who identified himself simply as Olaniyi, told our correspondent that the joints used to be many until recent raids by law enforcement agents.

He said, “I do not really blame KAI people for carrying out raids here. Some bad boys smoking Indian hemp and people selling drugs and gin constitute nuisance in the area. We see them smoking and walking on the road. We are not saying they (KAI officials) should not do their work; we are only appealing to them to have mercy on those of us who are struggling to make ends meet. I come from Iyana Oworo to work here. We were initially using a parcel of land that belongs to a church as a workshop but we were sent packing this week because of a fight last Sunday among the boys. We don’t have any other place to go.”

From Parkview Estate along Turnbull Road to Banana Island, street trading holds sway. Some of the traders who spoke to Saturday PUNCH insisted that they render essential services and not causing environmental nuisance as alleged.

A drink and food seller at an open space along Banana Island Road said domestic workers patronise her shop “because their boss won’t give them food.”

“Some bosses would give their domestic staff even a meal a day. Those people (home helps) cannot afford to buy food at eateries so they prefer to come here,” the trader, who gave her name only as Mama Esther, added.

One of the barbers on Turnbull Road, Kunle Babajide, said people working for the rich prefer to cut their hair in his stand because they couldn’t pay the amount charged at well-furnished barber shops in the area.

He said, “It (haircut) is just N300 here. They don’t bother to go to salons within the community because it is too expensive. So, we are useful to them.

“Some people are claiming that Ikoyi has been invaded by riff-raffs but that is not true. Early in the morning, a lot of people come to work at building sites. Some of them come from far places and don’t return home until the weekend because of transport fares.”

Babajide added that despite his stand being raided by KAI officials many times with his working tools seized, he refused to leave the spot because he did not have the means to rent a shop.

He stated, “I feed my family and pay my children school fees with this work. Where can I get N500,000 to rent a shop around Obalende? I have no other means of livelihood and I can’t abandon this one. KAI officials have seized my working tools many times. I am not happy to be here but I cannot help it. I have to hustle to cater to my family.”