Claim they paid rent to the FCTA after shops were allocated to them
Parks and recreation operators in GSM Village Abuja have criticised the demolition of their business premises by the Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA).
Francis Ekanem, a park operator, said that the FCTA demolished shops validly allocated to their owners, adding that the exercise had rendered more than 2000 people jobless.
Ekanem said that he paid N114, 000 per annum to Parks and Recreation Department, FCTA, which issued him with receipt after each payment.
He said that the garden was allocated by the authority to the operators, including him, to green the park, adding that the place was initially a refuse dump.
He said the notice given by the Department of Development Control was too short, adding also that there was a pending case in court on the matter.
“The court has given injunction that the garden should not be demolished pending when then case is over; we know that they want to revoke the garden and re-sell it,” he said. “Now that over 2000 operators are jobless, what do they want us to eat and feed our families with? They said they will give us design for the garden and we are yet to see that until the demolition took place.”
Another operator, Blessing Agwu, also criticised the demolition, saying that “the notice was too sudden for us to remove our belongings”.
Responding, Roland Ologun, a Town Planner in the FCT, said the essence of the park and recreation centre was to create leisure and play ground conducive for children.
“The garden is a passive park where we do not want noise, musical and other activities to take place, because we have residential buildings around,” he said. “The structures and shanties inside the parks do not have government approval or plans; that is why we removed them.”
Ologun denied that park and recreation department collected rent from the operators, adding that charges were based on the size of the land.
“In 2009, we only gave the park to three people and they started sub-letting it; which was not part of our agreement, and this land is a railway corridor and rail station,” he said. “We do not expect most of the activities that are going on in the garden and our plan is to replant the garden after removing the shanties.”
Caleb Bisala, District Officer, Development Control, who was in charge of the demolition, said that the exercise was to sanitise the place. “They have made the garden a place where they sell alcohol and people also live there which was not the original intention,” he said. “The illegal shanties are also security threats.”
