By Joyce Remi-Babayeju
The FCT Minister, Barr. Nyesom Wike, has threatened to arrest dubious individuals extorting money from unsuspecting Apo Mechanic village traders promising to give them land, and traders who are not on road corridors of Apo mechanics village registering for the exercise would be handed over to the security agencies soon.
The Minister,disclosed that some dubious union leaders collected as much as six hundred thousand to one million Naira per trader against approved three hundred thousand Naira non-refundable fees for land registration for the relocation exercise of traders on the road corridors and buffers.
Coordinator, Abuja Metropolitan Management Council, AMMC, Felix Obuah who spoke on behalf of the FCT Minister said that eleven thousand individuals have so far registered for the relocation exercise of traders on the road corridor along APO mechanics village to 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 have paid, That’s not enough. They are still pleading that they will refer to the same time.”
“Many people are even using this as 419, they’re going to the back and collecting over N650,000 and the government is currently collecting 300,000, people are desperate. That’s why I came here to tell them this is what we are doing. “
“I will carry them along in every process, and at the end, whoever that is allocated to this shop will be published,” he said.
The Minister 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 plans among other things.
Addressing the traders, the minister represented by AMMC coordinator acknowledged the difficulties he faced in dealing with the traders, stating that over forty-five thousand names were submitted initially by different unions which he described as inflated lists.
He explained that due to the blotted names, among other false claims the council was forced to conduct physical enumerations of the affected traders.
“Well, as a matter of fact, the meeting was actually meant to brief them on how far we have gone with the arrangement of locating them to Wasa. So we invited the stakeholders of Apo traders, mainly all the association heads, to brief them on 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 intended to do.”
“I’m 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.”
I have also 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 it. And some of them who have money”
The AMMC coordinator noted that the exercise would be concluded before the end of the month.
He emphasized that the plan to relocate the traders that have suffered a different setback since twenty-five years ago would be concluded by this administration, emphasizing that the names of alottees would be published for public scrutiny.
He mentioned the issue of Apo on brekete family news, adding that they were convinced, and how they were pleading that they have seen the truth, and are now that begging the coordinators should allow them to immediately pay.
However, rumor has it that those shops have been given out to government officials, to girlfriends and brothers, but I was able to make it plain to all of them, not even one, has been allocated to such people, Obuah said.
