Helpless! Shop owners weep as FCTA demolishes complex

The Federal Capital Territory Administration on Saturday demolished the UTC Shopping Complex at Area 10, in the Garki area of Abuja.

Shop owners said the Joint Task Force of the FCTA stormed the area in the early hours of the day and barred them from taking valuable items from their shops before the demolition began.

According to them, they hadn’t received any notice of the demolition, although they had been instructed to move to another complex provided, which they argued had not been completed and could not contain the over 480 shops in the now demolished complex.

While majority said they received no notice of the demolition, a trader, John Sunday, admitted that the FCTA sent a notice earlier in the year.

He, however, noted that shop owners relaxed because the matter was being contested in court.

“Yes, we were given notice earlier this year that they were coming. But, the matter is still in court, according to what our leaders in the complex told us. So, we just had hopes that it was a 50-50 situation; we didn’t think it will happen this way,” he said.

Another shop owner, Yusuf Adebayo, insisted that they were not notified.

He said the new shops provided were not fitted with amenities, including electricity, despite the fact that about 300 traders had already paid about N250,000 each for the shops.

Adebayo said, “They asked us to relocate to the other side. Whereas that place they are trying to take us to, they have not done anything. No light, no proper arrangement for people to move in there. People have already paid. They said they should pay. I think they are paying about N250,000 for each shop. And about 300 shop owners have paid already, and nothing was done properly.”

Meanwhile, a sales girl, who declined to be named in this report, alleged that security agents who accompanied the demolition team, shot tear gas into the air to disperse protesting shop owners.

She said, “We came here this morning; they had blocked everywhere; they did not allow us to enter. So, there was even a man that was trying to speak up that they should allow us to carry our things, but they arrested him and even the person that went to plead for him, they arrested him.

“They were spraying tear gas; they beat him up as if he was a child. Even me too, I ran there to go and carry some things; they sprayed tear gas inside that place; they wanted to kill people with tear gas, that policeman was even threatening to shoot us”.

Efforts to reach the FCTA Director of Monitoring, Inspection and Evaluation, Attah Ikharo, to comment on the issue proved abortive, as he did not respond to phone calls as of the time of filing this report. Punch