Kubwa, the centre of attraction in the Federal Capital Territory
has harvested tears from the Bwari Area Council in the past two weeks. The
largest outpost of the Abuja municipal city is reeling in pains, as the claws
and teeth of bulldozers tore down hundreds of shop, leaving shop owners and
landlords in tears and pains.
It started like a joke two weeks ago, as the trucks came
calling. The first places visited felt it would be just a passing nightmare
until the claws dug in and yanked off numerous shops and business places. The
council officers came ready and meant business, listening to no pleas or
persuasion even inducements to stop.
On the first day of operation, the popular Yellow Pages,
opposite St. Bartholomew’s Anglican Church, fell to their destruction. The spot
is known for one thing – grilled fish in the entire Kubwa. But the business
that thrives at night stretching to some 500m, all roasting and selling fish
ran into bad business as their places of operation were pulled down by the
machines from Bwari.
From this prominent spot, the bulldozers rolled on to other
parts like the PW Bridge where the same disaster was unleashed. The irony of
the incident is that most of the losers are shop owners, retailer outlets,
business outlets owned only by tenants.
While the tenants lose their places and even goods, the
landlords just lost further income. One of the victims, Mrs. Elizabeth Etim who
operated a restaurant around the Yellow Pages area said she rented the shop in
less than six months and still had her rent valid till about June next year.
The N860,000 she paid the shop owner just went down the drain as the landlord
in place of sympathy for the poor widow rained abuses on her instead. While the
woman counts her losses, her landlord is rather insisting that he lost the
property he allegedly erected at N3m cost and should be the one to be
compensated by the distraught tenant.
More
damage
The destruction has not abated since as the council men
continued from where they stopped immediately the new week started. The most
affected part of Kubwa is actually the most prominent street – Gado Nasko Road.
From the end around Total Filling Station up to the PW Bridge, it is the same
story of tears.
At a spot near a mosque under construction where artisans gather
to solicit patronage, the entire space that served as ad hoc building materials
and hardware market was reduced to rubbles. There was no building except the
banks on Gado Nasko that was spared.
Ironically, the council men told Abuja Metro that while the
buildings were approved, the attached business outlets are illegal. That is the
reason that some days after the demolition, the property owners who had
actually got their rents from tenants started raising fence walls on the spot
the shops stood to barricade their property from the outer world.
Some shop and business owners Abuja Metro spoke with lamented
that those of them who were not around when the bulldozers came could not
rescue even their wares. They claim that the council didn’t give them prior
notice before the action.
“I have lost my goods in the shop, and that is in addition to
N1.2m I paid to renew my stay in the shop three months ago. I have lost
everything and I have nobody to run to for assistance. I don’t know how to
explain what befell me. I don’t also know what the council gains to impoverish
poor Nigerians in the name of sticking to Kubwa master plan. What is the
justice in allowing the property owners raise these shops even after tipping
the same council workers only to punish the poor tenants that pay to use them.”
These questions by Mrs. Edith Chima whose pharmacy shop was knocked down are
the same refrain from all victims and they asked like to no one in particular
“who do we cry to when the government treats us this way. If the council says
these structures were illegal, where have they been these years they existed
because some of them have been there for at least 10 years. They allowed them
to be built and unleash the anger on poor tenants.”
While the council men that distributed pains among the poor
citizens promised to continue until they acquire the sanity in development they
said was lost to the haphazard shop construction, they would not speak to Abuja
Metro on the allegation that they never served these victims any notice before
the onslaught, they said only their boss in Bwari would speak to the press on
the development. They referred every question on their act to the office.
However, in the areas that are yet to be affected, shop owners
were seen busy picking their things out in anticipation that the raging machine
would not stop rolling as they keep promising.
Tags
Society