FCT denies plan to demolish auto parts market

Auto components sellers in Abuja have been assured that there is no plan to demolish their present shops in Apo District of the territory.

The Head of Public Relations, Abuja Metropolitan Management Council, Mrs Grace Zamani, gave the assurance while addressing the traders, who staged preemptive protest on Tuesday.

She verbally expressed the protest was not compulsory.

She assured the traders that the land allocated to them in Wasa was going through due process.

The quandary has to do with communication; work is in progress on the land in Wasa and we will hand it over to you when we conclude.

“Meanwhile, there is no plan to demolish the present site until you are congruously relocated,” she verbalized.

Spokesman for the traders, Mr Chime Ife, told the News Agency of Nigeria that the protest was due to the threat by the Department to Development Control to demolish the market.

He verbalized the traders had applied for an alternative space for the market, which was granted but had not been handed over to them.

“They demolished our shops in Apo in 2006 and we had to pergrinate to an ephemeral site in the area. In 2011, we applied for an alternative land for our trade, which was granted by the minister while we remained in an ad interim site in Apo.

“But a few weeks ago, they came to our ephemeral site without handing over the permanent site to us, that is why we are protesting,” he verbalized.