The demolition team stormed the market in the company of tight security provided by armed men of Nigeria Civil Defence.
The team did not give the traders opportunity to pack their wares as they destroyed the wares along with the shops.
According to an official in the team who spoke under anonymity, “We can’t give them any chance to pack their wares because they have been given enough chance. We have served them notice for a very long time that we are coming to carry out the exercise.
“‘In fact, for your information, this exercise ought to have been carried out since last year December but because they begged the government to allow them sell for the Christmas and New Year, we were asked to hold on until now that we are instructed to move in and destroy. What were they waiting for? They are too stubborn. When we were destroying the other side, people that we have not gotten to were sitting down and looking at us as if we will not get to them. Sorry, we are demolishing sizable number of shops today.”During the exercise, some traders were seen weeping and attempting to stop the demolition team who did not listen to them.
A statement issued by the government said that about 1000 shops would be built in the demolished market under public-private partnership scheme with modern infrastructure.
They assured that the new shops will be allocated to the occupants of the market, allaying fears of the traders that no new person would be allocated shops until all that were on ground have been allocated.
Credit: PM News
No comments:
Post a Comment