Computer Village: Iyaloja, Babaloja Issue Takes Dangerous Dimension

Barely twenty fours hours after business owners and stakeholders in Africa’s largest ICT hub, Computer Village, took to the streets to protest the underground planned installation of Iyaloja and Babaloja in the market after which they presented their letters of rejection to the Lagos State House of Assembly and the Executive Governor, Mr. Akinwunmi Ambode, the matter has taken a dangerous dimension.

Following the protest that greeted the idea, on Wednesday the marketers and members of the Landlords’ Association went to see the Iyaloja General, Chief Mrs. Folashade Tinubu Ojo, on the rejection of the Iyaloja issue so that she should stay action until an amicable solution is found.

P.M.EXPRESS reliably gathered that the unexpected and a dangerous dimension to the issue happened the moment the delegation got to the entrance gate of Chief Mrs. Tinubu-Ojo at Sunday Adigun Street, Alausa area of Ikeja. Area boys and hoodlums positioned at the gate acted like they were briefed ahead of the coming of the team as they descended on them and attacked with broken bottles and other dangerous weapons. In the process, a member of the delegation, Mr. Laja Adesanya, had his head hit with broken bottle and his clothes torn. Another member of the team popularly known as ‘Tallest’ was also wounded. It was alleged that the vehicle they came with was equally touched in the attack.

Another member of the delegation who spoke to P.M.EXPRESS on condition of anonymity said he narrowly escaped the attack as he was about alighting from his car when his colleagues were descended upon. He said he later learnt that the attack was deliberate as members of the delegation, who were mainly of the Yoruba stock, were seen as supporting the majority of the business owners in the ICT hub, Computer Village, who are foreigners and Nigerians from other ethnic nationalities. He wondered if the kind of crude treatment meted on the delegation was what the Iyaloja office was all about.