By ILORIN — For the traders whose containers and makeshift stalls line the Asa Dam and Geri Alimi axes of Ilorin, Wednesday, 23rd July 2026 began like any other business day. By midday, it had become a race against the clock.
Officials of a state task force moved in their vehicles, ordering traders and owners of containerised shops sited under or close to high-tension power lines to vacate within 24 hours. Traders who spoke to our correspondent said the officials identified themselves as coming from a state agency they understood to be connected with town planning, but no written notice, prior marking of structures, or relocation arrangement accompanied the directive.
“They are telling me within 24 hours, but they didn’t give any prior signal or notice,” said one trader, who asked not to be named. “The only thing we saw was them coming out today to tell you to leave within 24 hours.
For him, the order cuts deeper than an inconvenience. “This is where we get our means of livelihood. Look, I’ve been a graduate since 2013, and we have nothing to do, just process, process, process for a white-collar job. I don’t know if the government wants to kill us. We have children and wives at home. How do I feed my family? They should please have mercy on us.”
“We never know where we wan go”
Silas, a fruit seller on the axis, said the suddenness of the order left traders with no plan and no bargaining power.
“They say we should pack within 24 hours. We never know where we wan go, because the thing just came urgent — no any notice,” he said. “We don beg them. If na the environment dey dirty, we go dey clean the environment. But this one wey they talk say make we pack like this, how we wan take do am? Where we wan start from?”
A containerised shop owner on the road, visibly angry, declined a full interview. “Are they not government?” he asked. “They asked us to pack our load within 24 hours without notice.”
“Government is for the people” — residents fault the process, not the policy
Community members who witnessed the exercise did not dispute the government’s authority to clear the road; several acknowledged the safety concerns around trading under high-tension cables, but they questioned the manner of enforcement.
Prince Suleiman, a concerned resident, argued that due process was skipped. “Have they given them notice and marked where they don’t want them to stay, and given them a time or date to leave? Did they do that?” he asked. “Those who have containers that have been cemented — you want to give them five hours, two hours, three hours?”
“Government is for the people and by the people,” he added. “Nobody can argue with the government, but you have to dialogue with them. The best thing is to give people enough time, one week, two weeks, especially those with cemented containers.”
Mrs Modupe Fadeyi, another resident, said the order landed hardest on those already surviving hand to mouth.
“Look at that woman selling rice; everything in her warmer is not up to a paint of rice, but she always shows up because there are families to feed,” she said. “Look at a grown man selling akara; he is a graduate, but he is selling akara, and a lot of people buy from him. And you want them to leave. Will they be frying akara inside their rooms? They need to go out to sell.”
Alhaji Ayuba Alubarika Decency, a transport business owner on the axis, urged compliance, framing the exercise as a matter of both law and safety.
“It is what the government wants that we will do; we don’t have the power to fight the government,” he said. “Normally, if a road is like this, there should be a certain space that is left away from the road. Maybe it’s about the high-tension wire.”
For him, the question of resistance does not arise. “The government owns everything and has power over everything, and whatever they want, we must comply,” he said, before offering a prayer for the state: “May AbdulRahman’s administration survive.”
Officials decline comment
Task force officials on site were approached to speak on the ongoing clearance but declined, saying they were not authorised to comment on the matter. Efforts to obtain the contact of an official authorised to speak were also turned down.
The exercise comes against the backdrop of the Kwara State Government’s wider urban renewal push in the Ilorin metropolis, which has in recent years involved quit notices, the marking of structures said to encroach on public infrastructure, and warnings to traders to vacate walkways and rehabilitated roads for approved markets. The government has previously defended the marking and removal of encroaching structures as standard practice in facilitating infrastructural development, and safety campaigns have repeatedly warned against siting shops and structures under high-tension powerlines.
What distinguishes Wednesday’s exercise, in the account of those affected, is the window: 24 hours and, for some, less.
“As a business person, telling us to leave within 24 hours will affect a lot of things,” the unnamed trader said. “If they don’t leave any option for us, that means we have to go and find another way to make a living.”
