The Lagos State Government is set to relocate the Computer Village from Ikeja to Katangua in the Abule-Egba area.
The Special Adviser to the Governor on eGIS and Urban Development, Dr Olajide Babatunde, disclosed this on Saturday, during a joint inspection and enforcement exercise carried out by Lagos State Building Control Agency, in conjunction with some law enforcement agencies and other relevant government agencies in charge of emergency related matters.
Babatunde said the Lagos State Government was trying to reorganise markets in the state.
He said, “We are trying to reorganise all our markets. I will give an example, in Ikeja, we have the computer village, which is being relocated to Katangua.
“Hence, it is not just the computer village alone, there are other activities that would happen in the Katangua market.”
According to him, in the coming weeks, the efforts of the government on the Katangua market will be seen.
He added, “We are moving those people who seem to be on the road in Ikeja and obstructing traffic, into a proper market big enough with all the services, with a creche for their children, schools, playground, churches, mosques, storage room, warehouses, some accomodations and and hotel facilities.
“We are trying to do things in a proper way, we are working on all of these things to ensure that we re-generate, re-develop, innovate, conserve, and anything we need to do in terms of the terminologies we have in urban development, will be put to play in Lagos in way that we would have a greater Lagos rising.”
It was earlier reported that the relocation was supposed to happen in 2017 but was stalled.
In 2023, the state’s former Commissioner for Physical Planning and Urban Development, Wasiu Anifowose, said that all arrangements had been made to relocate the traders.
Anifowose noted that the market was located in a residential area, adding that the relocation would reduce gridlock.
It will recalled that Ikeja Computer Village a purely residential area has over the years assumed a commercial status causing traffic gridlock and harbouring miscreants who have constituted security nuisance to residents of a hitherto peaceful Ikeja suburb.
Punch with agency reports