Dealers on telephone, and assorted electronics have lamented the demolition of their shops by operatives of the Aba Urban Renewal Committee who claimed to be demolishing illegal structures and shops built on sanitary lanes and walkways in Aba.
The exercise lasted for more than four hours along St. Michael’s road with a combined team of security agencies who kept harassing traders while the exercise lasted.
The traders including phone, electronics and computer hard and software dealers were directed to relocate to the Aba Mega Mall along the Aba-Enugu Expressway which the government claims is more conducive for their businesses.
In a chat with 247ureports.com, leader of the demolition exercise and secretary of the AUR committee, Obinna Egbulefu said that the exercise was not targeted at any individual or group of persons.
He claimed that the traders were given a year notice to vacate the area as the government was determined to demolish structures built on waterways to end street trading in the city.
The demolition which started from St. Michael’s by High Court to St. Michael’s by Mosquestreet saw the demolition of wares of traders who could not remove them on time as others were forced to close for business.
247ureports.com gathered that a shop of the size of a square metre at the Aba Mega Mall costs N3.5m.
Some of the traders who spoke to our correspondent said that they support government decision to relocate them to the Aba Mega Mall, but pleaded for more time. They however lamented high cost of shops at the Mega Mall as the reason why they are reluctant inrelocating to the place.
“How are we going to afford about N3.5m to rent a shop at the Mega Mall? Some of us here are apprentice and beginners who are just managing this business to keep life together and run from crime. Others are students in Abia Poly who use this business to pay their school fees and support their families. So, the government should reconsider this demolition exercise. The timing for us is wrong too. For several years after graduating, I have been looking for job and after an endless job search, I took interest in phone repairs and today, I can at least eat and change clothing instead of what life was for me when I was in search of a white collar job.
“The truth is that the relocation exercise is going to push some of us back to the street and this may also increase the level of crime in Aba which is already a hot zone and anything that will make the place hotter will not be in the interest of the state and other residents of the city,” a telephone repairer said.
But Egbulefu insisted that the movement of traders from St. Michael’s to Aba Mega Mall will reduce trading activities within the city and ensure free flow of traffic within the movement.
He added that any trader found trading in the area would be arrested and his wares confiscated and never to be released.
