According to a news report from the IEDPU Facebook Page, The Ilorin Emirate Descendants Progressive Union (IEDPU), the umbrella socio-cultural organisation for the people of Ilorin Emirate, has urged the Ilorin West Local Government Area Council to ensure that 70% of the new shops being constructed at Baboko Market, also known as Oja-Titun, are allocated to indigenous traders.
Alhaji Abdulmumini Ayo Abdulmalik, the National President of the Union, made this appeal in a statement released in Ilorin on Monday by Mallam Nurudeen Ibrahim, the National Publicity Secretary of IEDPU.
Abdulmalik emphasised the importance of prioritising the interests of the indigenes over those of any other groups. He stressed that government policies and programmes should promote the well-being, welfare, and economic interests of the local community, rather than favouring wealthy individuals.
He recalled that the Baboko Market and others built in the past were intended to boost the economic interests of the community’s indigenes, lamenting that this is no longer the case. He warned that this shift is leading to economic repression and deprivation for the people who own the land on which these markets are built.
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Abdulmalik suggested that interested indigenous traders should be allowed to pay for the shops in instalments, with strict measures to ensure the shops are used by the allottees.
He appealed to the Executive Governor of Kwara State, Mallam AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq, CON, to intervene and ensure that indigenes receive greater consideration, especially concerning land matters, in line with natural justice and practices in other parts of the country.
