Traders lament demolition of shops in Kuje

Some traders and shop owners at the popular Wowo Motor Park in Kuje Area Council, are lamenting the demolition of their shops by the authorities of the area council. City News gathered that over 80 shops were demolished on Saturday to reconstruct the motor park to ease vehicular movement in the area. A motor spare […]

Some traders and shop owners at the popular Wowo Motor Park in Kuje Area Council, are lamenting the demolition of their shops by the authorities of the area council.

City News gathered that over 80 shops were demolished on Saturday to reconstruct the motor park to ease vehicular movement in the area.

A motor spare parts dealer in the park, Emeka Okafor, said shop owners were given notice but with no specific time, which he said made them assume the demolition would come much later in the year.

“The notice was too short. Although we were duly informed, we did not know that it would be this early,” he said.

Another shop owner, Segun Adeyemi, who also spoke with our reporter, claimed that there was a court order stopping the area council from carrying out the demolition, but he alleged it was ignored.

He expressed concern that there was no adequate notice before the demolition was carried out, adding that the matter would be revisited in a competent court of jurisdiction.

“We agreed with the authorities to allow us provide a workable solution that will ease the difficulties for the shop owners in the park before demolition.

“We had discussed a workable plan for the demolition to take place in batches only to wake up this morning and see bulldozers demolishing our shops without adequate notice,” he said.

Reacting, Secretary of the National Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW), Kuje branch, Mohammed Goguwa, said the demolition had the approval of the shop owners, transport unions and Kuje Area Council.

He said the plan was to demolish and reconstruct the motor park, adding that every shop owner had been duly compensated before the exercise.

Meanwhile, the chairman of the council, Abdullahi Suleiman Sabo, has assured that the motor park would be properly modernised to ease vehicular movement in the area.

Sabo, while reacting to the outcry over the demolition, said a befitting motor park would enhance vehicular movement in the area and also improve the council’s Internally Revenue Generation (IGR).