Anxiety as FCT issues ultimatum to illegal traders, residents at Apo

Some traders, drivers, car dealers, scrap merchants and residents on the Apo road corridors, who were issued a seven-day ultimatum to vacate the premises, have said the government was insensitive to their plights. They said the order to vacate their places of businesses, coming a few days after the coronavirus lockdown was eased, was frustrating. […]

Some traders, drivers, car dealers, scrap merchants and residents on the Apo road corridors, who were issued a seven-day ultimatum to vacate the premises, have said the government was insensitive to their plights. They said the order to vacate their places of businesses, coming a few days after the coronavirus lockdown was eased, was frustrating.

Over 1,000 people, including livestock traders at Apo Roundabout, scrap merchants at the bridge, car dealers, towing van drivers, mechanics, traders, and residents at the NEPA junction, would be affected by the plan of the government to sanitise the Outer Southern Expressway (OSEX) to make way for the ongoing road construction and beautification of the city.

The chairman of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Ministerial Task Force on City Sanitation, Ikharo Attah and that of the Abuja Environmental Protection Board, Baba Shehu Lawan, met with the affected residents on Monday. They were issued a seven-day ultimatum to vacate the corridor in two phases.

Attah said the first phase of the sanitation exercise would take place from Apo Roundabout to NEPA junction on Monday. The second phase will commence from NEPA junction to Apo Mechanic Village.

Lawan also said abandoned vehicles, furniture and other things not removed at the expiration of the ultimatum would be seized.

The vice chairman of the Sauki Rams, Goats, Sheep and Cow Dealers Association, Apo Roundabout, Haruna Saidu, said many traders had left the FCT for other states following the relocation order. He said the order came at the wrong time as the traders were only trying to find their feet after the lockdown was eased.

“We have been here for more than 18 years. There are more than 300 dealers, and about 1,000 people get their daily income from here,” he said.

He said the place was temporarily allocated to them by government, and lamented the inability of the concerned authorities to relocate them to a befitting location.

“They did not give us another place. We were only told on Monday and given a seven-day ultimatum. We appealed to the director of the Federal Capital Development Authority (FCDA) and the Abuja Environmental Protection Board (AEPB) to give us another place, but nothing has been done so far,” he said.

He said that six years ago, government had planned to relocate them to Wassa, another community about 38 kilometers from their present location.

“We were only shown a place, which is too far. And there are armed robbers. It is a bush area and there is nobody there,” he said.

He said that in compliance with the ultimatum, some dealers had been moving their livestock to Maiduguri, Katsina, Kano, Jigawa and Zamfara states.  He also said it was not the intention of the dealers to go against the government.

“We plan to leave this place before Monday.  We have wives and many children. Some people here are educated; now, they will be left with nothing to fend for their families,” he said, and appealed to the government to reconsider its decision or locate them to a better place

The chairman of the Apo NEPA Junction Towing Van Association, Emmanuel James, said the government should have chosen a better time to vacate them.

“It is very unfortunate that this is coming a few days after the lockdown was eased.  It is affecting us adversely. As I am talking to you, there is no food in my house. We have been on lockdown for many weeks, and when it was eased, they are telling us to go,” he lamented.

He said a good location was crucial for their business to attract customers and help stranded motorists. He added that their members had resolved to return to their homes if government failed to heed their call for relocation and leniency.

“We have been using this place since last year and have been working with the environmental people; but last week, we were told to leave. Things are very bad in the country, so we are pleading with government to give us another place to operate.

“We cannot fight the government, but we are citizens and we have been trying to have a place of our own. We know that they are investing in infrastructure and creating the road for us to use, but they should also help us,” he said.

A battery charger, Olawale Tijjani, said he had no plan to relocate because nobody had informed him to vacate the shop he uses for his business. He said the ‘indigenes,’ his landlords had assured him that  government would not touch the property.

Tijjani, who has been using the shop for over four years, said he was also assured because no place was marked for demolition in the usual manner government marks buildings for such exercise.

Asked what he would do should his building be affected, he said, “My things are not many, so I will move immediately; but I do not have a place to relocate.”

A tailor who is also using a shop beside the road owned by an indigene, Amos Tsoto, urged the government to use human face in discharging their responsibilities.

“They just eased lockdown and they are telling us to relocate. It is frustrating. I have been here for more than five years, and now, they want me to move in seven days without providing another place for me to do my business. I am not surprised. It is not the end of the world,” Tsoto said, adding that God will always help him to survive.

Checks at the informal sector of the Apo Mechanic Village showed that some traders have already complied with the directive of the government to move away from the road corridor.  Some of the traders plan to move to other places within the territory.

The construction of the 20-kilometre dual carriage Apo-Wasa road was flagged off in 2017 by the FCT Minister Muhammad Musa Bello.

The road, which is part of the Outer Southern Expressway (OSEX), will pull up at the Apo-Karshi road, also under construction. The two carriageways were awarded to different construction companies, namely M/S CGC, (Nigeria) Ltd – for the left-hand-side carriageway of 15km, and Gilmor (Nigeria) Ltd – for the right-hand-side carriageway, measuring 5km. The contract sums for both roads are N6.17bn and N2.45bn respectively.