Banex traders count losses after military siege

Traders at the popular Banex Plaza in the Wuse 2 area of Abuja were given access to their shops last Monday after over a week siege by the military, Daily Trust Saturday reports.

In a statement, Major General Onyema Nwachukwu, army spokesman, said the reopening of the plaza was agreed at a high-level meeting convened in the Office of the National Security Adviser, Nuhu Ribadu.  

Those in the meeting, according to Nwachukwu, include the Principal General Staff Officer to the NSA, Commissioner of Police, FCT, the FCT Director of the Department of State Services, the leadership and management of Banex Plaza, a representative from the Directorate of Abuja Environmental Protection Board, and the national chairman of the Mobile Phone Traders Association.

Recall that the market was sealed by military authorities on May 18 following a violent clash between traders and military personnel.

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Trouble started when thugs beat up some soldiers who had a disagreement with a trader in the plaza.

The trader had reportedly sold a bad phone to someone who invited soldiers. Rather than resolve the issue amicably, the trader reportedly invited thugs who assaulted the uniform men.

They descended on at least two soldiers and another man in mufti. The thugs, who broke into groups, slapped, kicked and beat up the soldiers.

Although the police stepped in to resolve the situation, soldiers later stormed the plaza, forcing traders to shut down immediately.

After the closure of the plaza, Major General Nwachukwu had explained that the plaza was shut after the incident on Saturday, May 18, 2024 to probe the “cruel treatment” meted out to “unarmed soldiers” by some persons at the trade plaza.

The House of Representatives had urged the federal government and the Nigerian army to immediately reopen Banex Plaza in Abuja.

Human rights activists, including Femi Falana, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), Civil Society Organisations, among others, had also condemned the military action.

In the statement on Monday, Nwachukwu noted that the primary objective of the meeting was to identify and apprehend the perpetrators and ensure the continued security of the Federal Capital Territory.

He added that the leadership of Banex Plaza was instructed to lock up Shop C93 with immediate effect.

Also, the owners of the shop who orchestrated the mob attack on the soldiers were to be arrested and handed over to the police.

We’ll sanction any soldier found culpable – Lagbaja

Meanwhile, the Chief of Army Staff, Taoreed Lagbaja, has assured Nigerians that soldiers involved in the incident will be sanctioned if found culpable.

Lagbaja spoke as a guest on Channels Television’s May 29 special programme to score key areas of the President Bola Tinubu administration after one year in office. He said the army was still investigating the incident.

“The press release from the Director of Army Public Relations clearly stated that these allegations would be investigated.

“We are investigating it and will take appropriate sanction on the troops if they are found to be culpable,” Lagbaja said in the programme monitored by our correspondent.

He justified army’s occupation of the plaza for days, insisting that it was their duty to ensure that law and order was maintained after the incident.

“If we perceive that there is a likelihood of breach of law and order, we will take appropriate action because if Banex is touched, it is the military that will be called out,” he said.

Traders count losses

In separate chats with Daily Trust Saturday, shop owners and business operators in the area said they suffered losses.

Our correspondent who visited the market yesterday observed that business activities had resumed within and around the premises.

Sabiu Musa, a fruit juice seller who does business around the market, expressed delight about the reopening of the plaza, saying he was “seriously affected.”

“This is a welcome development because the closure of the market really affected my business. I sell up to N80,000 worth of juice daily, but during the period of the closure, it dropped to N30,000,” Musa said.

Also, Chinaza, a sales representative of a company who deals in phones, told our reporter that her organisation (name withheld) recorded a huge loss.

The sales representative lamented: “From retail shops, we sell nothing less than N4 million in a day, while for the wholesale shops we get not less than N12 million daily. It will shock you to know that during the closure, we hardly made up to N700,000 per day. We don’t pray for such a thing to happen again.”

Tunde Olayiwola, a phone repairer, said he had to relocate his business to the nearest plaza, just to make ends meet.

He said: “As you are aware, some plazas located close to Banex were not affected, so trading activities took place there. I moved to the nearest plaza, but I was still stranded as some of my clients’ phones and computers were locked in the shop. But thank God for the kind of clients I have; they understood the situation.”

Another trader who identified himself as Alhaji Tahir said his loss could not be quantified. 

“When the incident happened, I was not in the shop, but my boys were around. It was not funny at all because I had just restocked with millions of naira. If not for the development, all my goods would have been sold by now. I can’t quantify my loss, but, Alhamdulillah, it is better late than never,” Tahir, who sells phones and gadgets in retail said.

We’ve put measures in place to avoid recurrence – Management

In an exclusive interview with Daily Trust Saturday, the Group General Manager of Banex Group Limited, Denis Clement, said measures were being put in place to avoid a recurrence of such incidents in the future.

Clement said one of such measures was a court order against touts and hawkers within and around the plaza.

“The touts, also known as ‘Java Boys’ hang around the plaza and canvass for customers by stopping people on the way, asking what they want to buy. They make money out of it at the end of the day because if they introduce you to any tenant (shop owner), after the sale is completed, the tenant usually tips them,” he said.

While accusing the touts of attacking the soldiers, leading to the shutdown of the market, he said: “Those guys are not really helping us. They are even the reason this place was shut because they descended very badly on the military personnel. The court order against them has empowered us to get them arrested and charge them to court.

“We have taken immediate steps and are working on deploying more measures to ensure that what happened does not repeat. One of those measures is to get a court order against touts and hawkers within and around the plaza. Our intention is to ensure that these very people do not see the opportunity to strike when there is any unnecessary exchange.

“We have also communicated with the Abuja Environmental Protection Board (AEPB) and the Abuja Municipal Area Council (AMAC) to establish a joint task force to monitor the area. This very meeting is going to take place on Tuesday

“The DIG, Force Headquarters has been reached. We requested mobile policemen. We have made a truck available for them to use.  We had done that in the past, sometime in 2022 when the activities of these miscreants were very intense. We deployed the mobile police for about 11 months. They were able to chase these guys out of this very place. When we were satisfied with what they had done, we allowed them to go back and we deployed regular policemen.

“But to our surprise, after three to four months, these guys were already back. So we have written again to the DIG for mobile policemen. We believe very strongly that he is going to grant that request.

“Also, we have been working with Commissioner of Police Benneth Igweh, who said he was going to deploy two Hilux vans full of policemen around the gates of the plaza. The agreement is that this will take effect on Monday.  It is just to make sure that these very nitwits that used the opportunity to unleash mayhem on soldiers would never have their way again.  

“We are also working alongside the tenant association caucus because they know those people patronising the ‘Java Boys.’ 

“Those are the measures we have deployed; and we are on course in implementing them. We are confident that once the measures are fully implemented, this place will be better and everybody will be secure when they come to do business.”