Hope rises as facelift of abandoned Abuja market begins

• Shops, warehouses, installations vandalised for years

Relief finally seems to be on the way for investors at the Dei Dei Regional Market, Abuja, which failed to kick off for years due to lack of provision of basic infrastructural facilities.

Situated at the commercial layout of Dei Dei area in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) the market, it was gathered, was allocated to traders and investors with the aim to decongest markets at the city centre as well as serve as warehouse to other markets within and beyond the territory.

Many investors who built their shops right from 2004, a year after the land allocation, however continued to lose their properties to vandals who removed items like doors, windows and roofing sheets.

But last week Thursday was a historical day for the shop owners, estimated to be about 9,000 in number.

The Abuja Market Management Limited (AMML), sealed a deal with Ikhlas International Ventures Nigeria Limited for the rehabilitation of infrastructures in the market.

It could be recalled that Abuja Investment Ltd, which executed all the infrastructure so far available in the market, later handed over the facility to AMML, an agency under it, to serve as custodian and regulator on the market’s takeoff. The shops owners association then got a developer who would carry on with the execution of the remaining work.

The agreement, as seen in a document made available to Daily Trust, indicated that owners of structures like banks, warehouses, conveniences, lockup shops among other properties would be charged to finance the project on the following bases: banks N500,000, warehouse N200,000, toilet N200,000, lockup shops N100,000 and informal sector N25,000.

The Managing Director of AMML, Abubakar Usman Faruk, whose agency endorsed the agreement on behalf of the FCT authority, said the project has a stipulated period of 12 months beginning from January next year.

He explained that, on their part, the FCT authority would provide bulldozers to clear the site where weeds took over the roads and passages between shops. The MD also said the work would be carried out in collaboration with the Development Control Department, a sister agency.

He said another collaboration would be made to relocate all petty traders operating along the roadside.

Speaking on the renovation contract, the chairman, Dei Dei Regional Market Shop Owners Association, Tukur Abubakar, said by the time the market restarts, thousands of traders would be accommodated, jobs and services provided and revenue generated to the agency.

He, however, lamented that many investors in the market have to start all over to rebuild their shops as vandals have destroyed the facilities.

On his part, the Secretary of the Market Shop Owners Association, Ben Aro, expressed happiness over the award of the project which, he said, he has been waiting for years.

Muhammad Sani Ahmad, one of the carpenters working in the market said the problem of vandalism in the market started when some people began to use the market as accommodation.

“There is also presence of prostitutes around some abandoned shops who attract all kinds of people. The vandals usually perpetrate the crime on Sundays when visitors are few, and in most cases do it in the night. There also cases of attacks on visitors and forceful seizure of their valuables,” Sani said.

He disclosed that the work was resumed following lamentation from the shop owners made up of people from different states of the federation who came together and demanded that the authority should give them the go ahead to provide of the remaining infrastructure in order to save their investments.

He said all infrastructures there should be executed from the part of government which charged the allottees money during land allocation.