PALMS OTA MALL IN BLACKOUT

You will recall that The Palms, Ota Mall was opened barely two months ago with pomp and pageantry but it appears that the owners and management of the mall known as Persianas Group are not ready for business.

How do you explain the seeming perpetual blackout that is currently experienced at the mall? Or are they just taking things for granted because it is located in Ota Ogun state?

The only time the mall and its expansive compound is lit is when the area is supplied with power from whichever ‘DisCo’ that covers the area.

We have observed, many residents around the area and shoppers alike have equally complained about this ugly trend that has continued since the early part of January till date. A shopper simply identified as Lekan said his own experience was when he wanted to use the restroom in the Mall and was told he could not because there was no water due to light issue.

Is it that Persianas group (owners of the mall) did not make adequate alternative power supply arrangement to serve the mall or that they cannot be bothered, after all it is Ota?

Do they not understand the security threat that this regular black out poses to the facility, workers within the facility, shoppers, passers-by and even their neighbours especially at night?

Apart from the security threat and possible danger, this is not good for their image in any sense. Would they have left any of the other Malls in every other eyebrow areas in a blackout?

This in my opinion might be a major reason why most of the stores in the mall has remained locked; I do not see business owners and vendors coming to take up such expensive space in the mall if the management cannot guarantee something as basic as power supply even if it is just to light up the various security lights in and around the mall.

Something urgent needs to be done.

PROTEST IN SANGO OVER CUSTOMS INVASION OF STORES

Shop owners in Sango garage took to the street in the early hours of today Wednesday 22^nd of February 2017 to protest the injustice done to them by men believed to be men of the Nigerian Customs Service and the Nigerian Army.

The protest caused vehicular and human traffic up until noon as the roads were blocked with tires and woods and protesters waving placards with different inscriptions. Motorists and commuters were stranded up until noon when the protest died down.

One of the protesters who simply wanted to be addressed as Osas told us that the men who he said were in uniforms stormed the garage at around 1am with about eleven (11) trucks and some hilux vans broke some lock-up shops and carted away with bags of rice, vegetable oil and money that were kept in the shops.

Afeez, a trader in one of the shops took our correspondent round to take a look at the locks that were broken and the gloomy market women sitting around not knowing what next to do.

Attempts to reach the State Police Public Relations, Abimbola Oyeyemi, on the matter have proven abortive as he did not respond to calls made to his telephone lines. The road was blocked for about six hours.one of the market woman said that this wasn’t the first time such is  happening but this time around the quantity of rice moved was much we were told that the security men gardening the shops exchanged gunshot with the customs offices.  

The questions on the lips of many people are; was it right for the customs officers to come at the middle of the night to break look up shops and move rice and vegetable oil that has already gotten to the wholes sales?   What where the customs doing at the border when the goods passed them? Are there better or more civilized ways of operations the customs could deploy?