Suleiman Anyalewechi, Aba
The umbrella body of Nigerian traders, the National Association Of Nigerian Traders, NANTS, has reiterated its unwavering optimism that the Dr Alex Otti led administration in Abia state will serve justice to the several thousands of its members whose shops were demolished in 2022 for the remodelling and reconstruction at some major markets in Aba by the regime of the immediate past governor, Dr Victor Okezie Ikpeazu.
This is even as it has expressed readiness to withdraw all legal actions instituted in the wake of the demolition exercise by the traders to make room for a political resolution of the matter.
NewsCritic online reports that between July and September, 2022 no fewer than 10,000 shops were demolished by the past administration at two of the major markets in Aba, the commercial hub of Abia state, namely Ariaria International Market and Ngwa Road markets, citing the need to remodel and reconstruct the markets in line with modern and global standards as a major reason.
The Abia state chairman of NANTS, Deacon Michael Aniorji in an exclusive interview with NewsCritic online on Tuesday October 3, 2023 appealed to Governor Otti to come to the assistance of the displaced traders in keeping with his electioneering promise, noting that apart from being subjected to untold hardship as a result of the disruption of their means of livelihood, a good number of the victims of the demolition exercise have died due to shock.
According to Aniorji, the near total support which Gov Otti received from traders across the state before and during the last elections was due to the trust they have in his ability and readiness to serve them justice which completely eluded them during the past administration.
Besides, during the campaigns, Gov Otti assured us severally that he will ensure that the traders whose shops were demolished will get their shops back and or get compensated.
We are hopeful that he will keep to his promise. And on our part, we are ready to cause the withdrawal of all legal actions instituted by the traders against the past administration, with regard to the arbitrary manner it went about the exercise, to allow for an amicable settlement.
The arbitrary and inhuman approach adopted by the past regime in carrying out the demolition exercise Informed our decision to challenge the action in court.
The shops in the first instance were built by the traders. Government only allocated the lands. The development of the shops at Ariaria Market were done by the traders who were forced to relocate from Ekeoha market when it was burnt in 1978.
Now, after toiling to build and establish the markets, the past administration just came in, pushed out the traders, demolished the shops without the provision of any alternative and or payments of compensations to the affected traders/ shop owners.
The most disturbing aspect of the whole thing was that when they (government) first came with the idea in 2015, we made our position known to them. We expressed our support for any move aimed at improving the standards of the markets as well as control perennial flooding.
We told them to draw and give us the project plan so that we will build the shops ourselves. This was to avoid the present situation that we have found ourselves.
We also went further to pledge our support and contribution towards the reconstruction of the Ariaria/Fauks Road to the tune of N1 billion, all in the understanding that they the government will reconstruct the road, while the traders will reconstruct the shops.
But at the end of the day, after we had contributed over N300 million to the account which they (government) opened at FCMB for the road reconstruction, they brought in the present developers of the shops.
We were told that the developer was coming with N9 billion and all that. But it turned out that the developer had nothing of such and only relied on bank facilities to kick start the project.
And now what is happening is that these shops are now being re-allotted to a different set of people by the developer at the cost of between N5 million and N6 million at the expense of the original owners.
This is contrary to the earlier promise that the shops will be returned to their original owners, and who will if possible, pay back the cost on instalment basis. The shops now, I repeat, are being given to the highest bidders, instead of the original owners some of whom had died due to shock arising from the prospect of losing their life savings and investments,” Deacon Aniorji stated.
NANTS while being hopeful and patiently awaiting on government’s intervention on the plights of the original shop owners, has appealed to Gov Otti to stop the developer from further selling the shops to the highest bidders.
