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Shop owners in Karu, an Abuja suburb came out in large numbers yesterday for a peaceful demonstration against what they termed, illegal demolition of their shops by officials of the Abuja Municipal Area Council (AMAC).
Speaking to journalists during the protest at the Karu Market in karu village, Abuja, the Vice Chairman of Karu Shop Owners association, Mrs. Mary Oluwatoyin Sodipe, decried the exercise as ruthless and inhuman.
Sodipe disclosed that they were not given any information prior to the demolition of the shops; in view of the fact that they were the rightful owners of the shops and that they got permission from AMAC in 1999 to erect shops in the area.
They called on President Goodluck Jonathan and Minister of Federal Capital Territory, FCT, Senator Bala Mohammed to come to their rescue.
“AMAC called us last year to come and pay for ground rent, and we paid between N30,000 and N100,000 each.The officials also allayed our fears by denying ever giving the land to any developer and subsequently directed us again by AMAC to go and pay N100,000 in ASO Savings Bank for forms”, she said.
The traders that rented the shops went to court and court said that “we should be called shop owners. We also went to State Security Service (SSS) office in AMAC, they said as well that we should be the shop owners. What we saw was demolition of our shops without any notice and compensation”, she said.
Sodipe said that the AMAC officials came to demolish their shops at Karu village with armed policemen in an on-going exercise which began on, January 26, 2012.