By Ismaila Jimoh, Abuja
Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Barr. Nyesom Wike has send a strong warning to those he described as dubious individuals collecting money from unsuspecting Apo mechanic traders with the promise of facilitating land allocations to them at the new market site to desist or face the full wrath of law.
He also said that anyone that is not members of traders on the road corridors of Apo mechanic village found registering for relocation exercise would be handed over to security agencies.
Wike issued the warning on Thursday during a meeting to update the traders on the enumeration exercise of traders on the road corridors, discussion of design and site plan among other things.
Speaking on behalf of the minister, the Coordinator, Abuja Metropolitan Management Council, AMMC, Felix Obuah revealed that some dubious union leaders collected as much as six hundred thousands to one million naira per trader as against approved three hundred thousand naira non refundable fees for land registration for the relocation exercise.
He disclosed that eleven thousand individuals have so far registered for the relocation exercise from APO mechanics village to the new site situated in Wasa District.
“If I even say it’s one Naira, I can tell you, nobody can manage it, because we put 300,000 naira. As I speak to you, over 11,000 people have collected the form. So if I even say it’s 1000 Naira, no one person can manage it. “
“We try to put this in to make sure that many people who are ghost names will not even apply in the first place. But as of today, over 11,000 has paid, That’s not enough. They are still pleading for more time. And many people are even using this as 419, they’re going to the back and collecting over 650,000 and government is currently collecting 300,000. people are desperate. That’s why I came here to tell them this is what we are doing. We will carry them along in every process, and at the end, whoever that is allocated this shop will be published.”
While acknowledging the difficulties the Administration faced in dealing with the traders, he said that over forty five thousand names were submitted initially by different unions which he described as inflated lists.
He said that the blotted names, among other false claims made the council to conduct physical enumerations of the affected traders.
Speaking to journalists at the end of the meeting, Obuah had this to say
“Well, as a matter of fact, the meeting was actually meant to brief them how far we have gone with the arrangement of relocating them to wasa. So we invited the stakeholders of Apo traders, mainly all the association heads, to brief them how far we have gone, the essence of the enumeration, the essence of the form and how many people have paid and what next we intend to do while we are doing this. And when we started, we did cause such a meeting to inform them of what we intend to do.”
“Im also telling them that it is purely for those of them in the road corridor and those of them in the buffer areas, that these forms are not meant for people who are not trading along the corridor. also I have discovered that most of them have gone as far as collecting money from people who are not having business to do with Apo, just because they want to grab. And some of them who have money”
The AMMC coordinator noted that the exercise would be concluded before the end of the month.
END.
