At the Wuse Market in Abuja, vendors and store owners are furious over the contentious sale of premium stalls and shops.
This comes after the Abuja Investment and Property Development Company (AIPDC) served eviction notices to the store’s occupants.
In an effort to stop the sale, the impacted businessmen have now petitioned Nyesom Wike, the minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), requesting immediate action.
The businessmen assert that the prices for the businesses were arbitrary raised to N60 million each shop, an amount they find intolerable.
The move was started by the AIPDC’s most recent group managing director without consulting Abuja Market Management Limited (AMML), according to investigations conducted by the Global Information Team’s (GIT) intelligence bureau.
The AMML is usually the only entity responsible for managing the markets in the Federal Capital Territory.
The chief of the GIT intelligence desk, Anabel Crown, emphasized that the AIPDC leadership’s activities nearly destroyed the AMML’s credibility.
She begged Minister Wike, who had just ended an AMML crisis, to step in and give the AMML the authority to oversee the Wuse Market going forward.
The traders claimed that, at a time when the market was relatively stable, the eviction notice and sale came as an unexpected surprise.
They worry that the new owners may significantly raise the shop’s prices after they take over.
The FCT Minister, the FCT government, the National Human Rights Commission, and the EFCC have all received applications from the traders. They still have faith that the government will step in and make sure justice is done.