Ayodele Olalere
Shop owners whose stores were attacked and looted in Ajah and Surulere shopping malls, by some aggrieved Nigerians during xenophobia reprisal attacks, have narrated how they lost millions of naira to the incident.
The store owners who spoke with Nigerian Xpress during on-the-spot assessment of the damages by Lagos State governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, on Saturday, said the attackers were able to have a field day having realised the police were unwilling to shoot at them.
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At the Surulere shopping malls, one Mr Oladimeji, owner of Household Deluxe Store, located inside the mall said he goods worth N9million to the incident.
” Initially, when the attackers came, the police were able to withheld them. But around 7:30 to 8pm, they came back in large numbers. They were able to enter when they realised the police were not going to shoot them. I lost N9million worth of goods, in another store, the owner lost goods worth N4million . Another store owner just took loan from Stanbic bank and restocked the store but everything was looted,” he lamented.
The mall manager, Mr Oladele Olabanji also said as at the time of the visit by the governor, a total of N20million worth of goods have only been discovered to have been lost, while other store owners are yet to estimate how much they have lost to the incident.
