RESURGENCE OF STREET TRADING IN OSHODI-ISOLO LG: A LOOMING URBAN CRISIS DEMANDS URGENT ACTION
“ Public Outcry as Oshodi Roads Turn to Markets and Motor Parks — Residents Demand Intervention from Otunba Oloyede and Lagos State”_
The growing resurgence of illegal street trading and encroachment across Oshodi-Isolo Local Government has become a ticking time bomb threatening public safety, free movement, and the aesthetic order of one of Lagos State’s most strategic urban corridors.
Investigations and field observations reveal that numerous streets within the Oshodi market hub—notably Agege Motor Road (from Bolade Junction), Suwebatu Ajala Street, Araromi, Banjoko, McCarthy etc have been overtaken by traders and transport operators who have converted public roads into makeshift markets, garages, and motor parks.
This disturbing trend, reportedly aided by some self-appointed “authorities” who allocate public spaces and collect illegal tolls daily, raises deep concerns about the erosion of governance and the gradual territorial capture of public infrastructure by criminally-minded elements.
Aside from the heavy traffic congestion and filth now defining these streets, commuters and residents are losing valuable productive hours in gridlocks created by this disorderly occupation. The median of Agege Motor Road—originally designed for traffic demarcation—has now become an unregulated car park for both private and commercial vehicles, further compounding chaos.
More worrisome is the role of commercial transport unions (NURTW, tricycle operators, and others), who now convert entire inner streets into mini motor parks under questionable authorizations. These developments, if unchecked, could precipitate a full-scale urban anarchy and total breakdown of order in Oshodi-Isolo.
While the Otunba Kehinde Oloyede-led administration deserves commendation for its visible achievements in road rehabilitation and infrastructure renewal, it is puzzling that the same roads are now being hijacked by those collecting illegal rents, thereby denying the tax-paying public access to facilities built with their own money.
This is not just negligence—it is a betrayal of public trust and a stain on the impressive work done by the council so far.Where are the Lagos State Kick Against Indiscipline (KAI) officers.Where are the Environmental Health Officials whose duty is to enforce sanitation and order? Have the Iyalojas and Babalojas of the affected markets suddenly gone to sleep—or are they part of the silent conspiracy enabling this urban decay?
Oshodi cannot afford to return to the dark era when chaos defined its identity. The local government must reclaim its streets, reassert its authority, and sanitize its environment before this lawlessness becomes irreversible. The worrisome of residents and concern individuals is constituting monsters that would be difficult to tame after the expiration of the current administration of Otunba Oloyede whom most of the miscreants claimed gave them the authority as compensation for their support for his election and re-election in Oshodi-Isolo local government
This is a clarion call to the Chairman, Otunba Kehinde Oloyede, the Legislative Council of Oshodi-Isolo, and the Lagos State Government and the ministry of environment to rise swiftly, restore sanity, and prevent the creeping territorial capture of public spaces by unscrupulous elements.
Good governance is not just about building roads—it is about protecting them from decay and disorder.
