There was pandemonium in Abuja the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), as traders at the popular UTC Market, Area 10, protested the demolition of the market by the FCT Administration Department of Development Control.
The traders woke up on Saturday morning to discover that their shops had been demolished.
The entire shops were demolished as early as 6 am.
Before the demolition, the entrance to the market was barricaded with heavily armed security men stopping traders from accessing their goods.
According to a trader, Tony Oluchukwu, officials of development control stormed the market as early as six in the morning.
The Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA) said the over 30 years old complex had to be demolished to give way for the needed rebounding of the place.
The administration said the structure was overdue for restructuring to fit into a shopping complex model required to grow SMEs to address global business needs and challenges.
A Deputy Director of Monitoring and Inspection at FCDA, Hassan Ogbole said the structures were defective and there was a need to upgrade it to the standard that will meet global business standards.
Ogbole noted that provisions had been made for the traders and other occupants of the complex to enable the reconstruction of the place.
He also stated that enough notice was given to the traders to enable them to move out and allow the construction to start.
He said many of the traders deliberately refused to move out.
He said: “The place is in a state of disrepair. The place is no longer habitable for occupation and business activities. The place has to give way for a new development.
“The company handling the development has informed Development Control and we are here to enforce compliance. We have given them enough notices for them to remove their goods, to enable us to start the work”.
The Secretary, Command and Control at FCTA Department of Security, Peter Olumiji said demolishing the complex was also needed to curtain the security challenges in the area.
Olumiji noted that apart from restructuring the place to meet global standards, there was a need to curtail the criminal activities prevalent in the place.
He disclosed that plans to remodel the place were carefully designed to end the thuggery that rubbishes the image of the place, especially faking of official documents.
One of the traders in the complex, Samuel Onuchukwu, said the traders and other occupants of the complex were worried because the temporary site provided for the developers was not secure for business.
Onuchukwu disclosed that many of the traders were yet to remove their goods and properties from the shops and offices.
According to him, they woke up early in the morning on Saturday to learn that the whole UTC area had been barricaded, and demolishing going on with people’s personal goods still entrapped.
Another trader, Samuel Oni admitted when speaking with The Nation that the FCTA had sent a notice earlier in the year but the shop owners had relaxed since the matter of the ordered move was still being contested in court.
He said: “Yes, we were given notice earlier this year that they were coming. But the whole 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 would happen this way. So perhaps the case had been settled in court without us knowing”.
