By Joyce Remi-Babayeju
The Abuja Investments Company Limited, AICL, has refuted recent media reports accusing the company of forcefully taking over a plot purportedly belonging to traders at the Kugbo International Market.
The traders under the auspices of the Kubgo International Market Traders Association, KIMTA, had accused the company of attempting to reclaim Plot 8279-E08, Kugbo Commercial Layout, which they claim was lawfully allocated to the association since 2003.
KIMTA, had in a statement by its President, Prince Emeka Egwuekwe, claim that the Plot in dispute was duly allocated to members of Mararaba Building Material Market in 2003, before it was revalidated in 2017.
However responding to the accusations, the Abuja Investments Company Limited, dismissed the report as gross misrepresentation of the facts and a malicious publication aimed at achieving the selfish agenda of a group of persons.
The company, in a statement expt that the title to Plot 8279-E08 where the Kugbo International Market is being developed, was granted to Abuja Investments Company Limited free of any encumbrance via an Offer of Statutory Right of Occupancy dated March 29th of March 2019 for the purpose of developing a District Market to serve Nyanya and adjoining districts.
In a statement signed by the Head, Real Estate Department of Abuja Investments Company Limited, Benedict Nwakalor, the company maintained that all necessary all the provals were obtained, from the relevant authorities before the commencement of the project.
Part of the statement reads, “One of such approvals was ‘Conveyance of Building Plan Approval’ by Department of Development Control, FCDA on October 10th, 2019.”
“The claim by the author of the article that the Kugbo International Market is located in the Kugbo Commercial Layout is clearly untrue, as no such layout or district exists in the Abuja Master plan.”
“The projected falsehood of the article referred made reference to a lawsuit and judgment in favor of its peddlers. May we state categorically that neither Abuja Investments Company Limited nor Mesotho Group Limited were parties to the suit referred if at all and in fact there exist no such suit involving the aforementioned organizations, or Plot No. 8279, Cadastral Zone EO8, Nyanya/Kugbo where the market is situated.
“To that extent it amounts to intolerable falsehood to posit that responsible organizations as Abuja Investments Limited and Mesotho Group Limited are land grabbers or to assert that Kugbo International Market is in dispute when there is none.”
The AICL while we assuring investors of the safety and security of their investment, urge members of the public to disregard any contrary claims regarding the Kugbo International Market, as they are unfounded falsities.
