The Board of Trustees of Articles Dealers Association, Lagos Badagry Express Road, has taken over the management of the market.

The move according to them was as a result of the alleged refusal of the president of the association, Mike Elendu to conducted election and hand over after the expiration of his tenure more than 14 years ago.

Speaking at a general assembly meeting of the association which was summoned by the BOT, Comrade Jerry Dimaka, said that for many years now, they have being appealing to the president and his executive to do the needful but they have refused.

According to him, it is unheard of where a president would stay in office for 17 years and refused to conduct election,

He said that assuming things are going on well in the market, they would not have bothered since they are there to do their trade and not to do politics.

However, he said that everything in the market has gone bad.

According to him, infrastructure in the market have all decayed, adding that even the traders have lost trust, hope and confidence in the market.

“The Board of Trustees of the market summoned this meeting to restore hope and confidence in the traders. Since the president has refused to conduct election and hand over to a fresh administration, we have taken over the management of the market .The BOT of the market met on March 5th 2025 and decided to take the bull by the horn. So we have decided to take over the management of the market .The motive is to turn the market around for the better. In due time we would be setting up an electoral committee to conduct election for those who would preside over the market.

In his contribution, one of the founding members of the market, Chief Onyedika Ufiri lamented how the president who had a single term of three years has stayed in office for 17 years.

According to him, whenever the president is asked to conduct election, he would claim that the court said that status-quo should be maintained.

He alleged that the president sold the market secretariat without the consent of the executive or the board of trustees and boasted that he is in charge and as such nothing would happen.

He also said that it was after the board of trustees have looked at the way the market was deteriorating that they decided to step in and rescue it.

Also contributing, another leader of the market, Prince Alexander Ezeobi, commended the Board of Trustees for intervening in the matter.

According to him, though they took time before doing that, it is better late than never.

“I was wondering whether we have Board of Trustees in this market. Imagine a situation where somebody was given a tenure of three years and he unilaterally extended it to 17 years. We, the members of the market, are promising the BOT of our unalloyed support. I also urge the traders not to allow anybody to threaten or intimidate them. Enough is enough,” Prince Ezeobi said.