Demolition: Feud brews between traders, Garki market managers

When Mrs Bolatito Aremu retired from the services of Lagos State as a nurse, she relocated to Abuja with her husband. To fight boredom, she went into business. She acquired a shop at the Garki model market. 

As her business grew, Mrs Aremu acquired two more shops where she sells provisions and foodstuff. But, her shops and those of other traders at the informal sector of the Garki model market are about to be demolished by the Abuja Markets Management Limited (AMML) which will leave thousands of small business owners without a business place. 

While speaking to our reporters, Aremu said if the AMML goes ahead with the proposed demolition, it’s going to affect her seriously. 

“I have invested in the three shops. I acquired the three shops for over N3 million and have been paying my service charges. It’s not easy starting all over again, with the condition we are in the nation now. It’s not easy starting from the scratch.Where will I pack my goods to?” Aremu asked hypothetically.

Some of the traders who spoke to Daily Trust said the management’s bid to remodel the market was at the expense of shops allocated to them. 

Rev. Augustine Ugwu the leader of the traders at the informal sector said the intimidation and cheating from the AMML forced the traders to stage a peaceful protest in order to intimate the FCT minister and other stakeholders on their plight.  

Rev. Ugwu who has been in the market since 2005 said he was surprised to know that the management was already selling their space to wealthy people without their consent. 

“This place was allocated to us and we have certificate of ownership by the original builders. The shops were sold outright to the traders in 2003,” he said. 

He alleged that the management planned to demolish the informal sector of the market to give way for the Garki Model Market Plaza currently being advertised by the AMML. 

They said about 100 shops were demolished in 2013 to pave way for the construction of the market. 

However, Ugwu said the traders would resist any attempt to force them out of their spaces as they have “same allocation papers with traders at the formal sector.” 

“We are made to know that this place is swampy hence it is designated an informal sector but we are surprised to see that they are building two-storey structures in the same place,” he said, questioning the suitability of the place for the new market project. 

When Daily Trust went round, the foundations for shops were being laid about 500 meters away from the informal sector.

Ugwu said the traders were not against the plan to remodel or upgrade the market but the manner with which AMML went about it, adding that they were treated as if they were nobody. 

“They have never called us to tell us their plans. Nobody is against upgrading but they want to push us out and sell the space. But we say no,” he said. 

He said the managers were overreacting to the fire incidences at the market, adding that “no one cuts off his head because it aches”. “No market is spared from fire and it is wrong for them to link the fire incidence to lack of an organized sector.” 

Responding to the issues, the Corporate Affairs Manager of AMML, Mr. Innocent Amaechina, said it was a few people that were raising issues about the ongoing redevelopment and remodelling of that section, adding that the section was not befitting of a modern market in the heart of the city.

“The location in question belongs to AMML. AMML is the owner and manager of all areas in Garki Market. What the AMML is doing is to remodel the place such that it can have all the facilities expected in such a place.  

“If you go to Garki Model Market today there is no warehouse. The cold-room for instance, what you have are makeshift cold-rooms constructed by the traders and if you have been around you will notice that there have been some recent fire incidents and it is always coming from those areas because of the substandard nature of what they put together and called cold-room,”Mr. Amaechina said.

On whether AMML wanted to demolish the informal sector, he said: “We are in agreement with the rest of the traders in the market in remodelling and redeveloping that area.That is what is happening. The situation is not the question of demolishing or not demolishing. In the first place those people who are there are squatters they are staying in a plot that is not their own.

“The land belongs to AMML. But that is not the issue, we acknowledge whether it belongs to them or not.They are traders and they have been trading there, we have sat down with them and we are saying yes you need to have a place to trade and we are going to provide a place for you. As we speak a large number of them have been relocated to another section of the market which was earmarked and called informal sector by the government.”

Amaechina said though many traders were still agitating, AMML was meeting with them and their lawyers to sort things out. 

“I think we are getting close to resolving it. It’s a matter of communication. Maybe we have not been able to communicate properly or maybe the people we have been communicating with have not been allowing the information to go down to the people. 

I can assure the rest of the traders that the management of AMML is not preparing to dislocate anybody from doing his business in the market. What we need is for them to work with us.If the traders are not there, we will not be there.”

With these words from the authorities, Mrs Aremu and many traders may breathe a sigh relief with the hope that they will not be displaced.