By 
By Oluwatobi Opusunju
The Lagos State Government has concluded plans to relocate the Otigba market popularly called Computer Village in a bid to reduce the gridlock that associated with the Ikeja axis of the state.
This was made public by the State Commissioner for Physical Planning and Urban Development, Wasiu Anifowose during a ministerial press briefing that took place recently at the State Secretariat, Alausa. He said the relocation of the market is in its concluding phase and it will help to curb environmental degradation, housing stock deficit and traffic congestion in the Ikeja axis.
“We have decided to relocate Computer Village to ICT Park Katangowa in Agbado/Oke Odo Local Council Development Area (LCDA). If at the end of this administration, the Computer Village is not moved from that Otigba Street in Ikeja to Katangowa, I will not come here next year,” he said.
“It is a done deal; we have held a stakeholders’ meeting with the traders and they agreed to the relocation plan. It is an 11-year project that different administrations attempted to undertake but the present governor is a goal-getter,” he added.
But the umbrella body for businessmen and shop owners within the Otigba market said they doubt government’s commitment to effecting the movement. President of Computer and Allied Product Dealers Association of Nigeria (CAPDAN) at Computer Village, Mr. Ahmed Ojikutu said his association was not aware of any solid plans to move the computer village to an ICT Park in Katangowa.
CAPDAN fears that the statement is mere political talk as has been the case with similar pronouncements by past governments.
Ojikutu told IT Edge News in Otigba that there was nothing on ground at Katangowa to show the government was serious about the movement. There are no plans, no design, or no roadmap to show that a movement was imminent CAPDAN said at its secretariat in Ikeja at the weekend.
