Daughter of former Lagos State Governor and Iyaloja General of Nigeria, Mrs Folashade Tinubu-Ojo, has dismissed the mounting protest against her at the Computer Village market in Lagos, the appointment of Iyaloja and Babaloja in the market was within her powers to do.
Explaining that the traders who organised and carried out the protested on Tuesday against the appointment were ill-informed, she told reporters that all the markets in the state, regardless of what were sold in them were under her control, including the computer village.
Quoting from the constitution of her body, where she claimed to derive authority, she said: “I can choose anybody from any local government in the state to head the market, all the iyaloja and babaloja in all the Lagos markets are my representatives in the market where they operate. Kindly educate them that phones, handsets, computers are commodities.
“They cannot tell us they are not pepper sellers, everybody cannot be textile dealers; they can’t tell us that computer village will be exonerated (sic) from other markets. We have the right to choose for them Iyaloja and Babaloja.
“Those people protesting never approached me to complain. They don’t have the initiative that the person leading the protest has finished his tenure and wants to remain in power…
“Computer village is not just an ICT hub, there are a lot of commodities being sold there; nobody can say it is wrong to select a babaloja and iyaloja for the market. Those that have been selected were not selected because they are Yoruba, in some of our markets in Lagos we have Igbos that were selected as market leaders,” Tinubu-Ojo said.
She said the appointment of Mrs Abisola Azeez and Mr Adeniyi Babalola, as Iyaloja and Babaloja of Computer Village respectively was done to maintain peace in the market among the traders.
.Punch