FCT justifies N300,000 relocation fees for mechanic village occupants

The Coordinator of the Abuja Metropolitan Management Council, Felix Obuah, has clarified the demand for the payment of N300,000 for the relocation of artisans from the Apo Mechanic Village to Wasa in the Federal Capital Territory.

Obuah said the approved N300,000 sum was a non-refundable fee for land registration, in the ongoing relocation exercise of traders on the road corridors in the area, adding that it was also to dissuade “ghost names” from making the application.

The AMMC Coordinator gave the updates at a stakeholders’ meeting on Thursday, to update the traders on the enumeration exercise, proposed design and site plan among other things.

He however alleged that some dubious union leaders charged the artisans and mechanics up to N1m for the relocation form, threatening to ensure that security agents arrest such persons falsely allocating lands to unsuspecting traders who were not on the road corridor where, who are the original beneficiaries of the exercise.

Obuah disclosed that so far, 11,000 individuals have registered for the relocation exercise.

“As I speak to you, over 11,000 people have collected the registration forms. We put it at N300,000. 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”.

“And many people are even using this as 419, they’re going to the back and collecting over N650,000 but the government is currently collecting N300,000. People are desperate. That’s why I came to tell them this is what we are doing. I will carry them along in every process, and at the end, whoever is allocated this shop will be published,” the AMMC Coordinator stated.

While acknowledging the difficulties he faced in dealing with the traders, he noted that over 45,000 names were initially submitted by different unions, describing such as inflated lists.

The AMMC Coordinator said the blotted names, among other false claims, made the Council conduct physical enumeration of the would-be affected traders.

“As a matter of fact, the meeting was actually meant to brief them on how far we have gone with the arrangement of relocating 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”.

“It is purely for those of them in the road corridor and those of them in the buffer areas, as these forms are not meant for people who are not along the corridor. I have 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 land especially some of them who have money”, he stated.

Obuah also declared that the exercise would be concluded before the end of the month, Obuah, noting that, “the plan to relocate the traders that have suffered a different set back since 25 years ago would be concluded by this administration”.

“Rumour 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, and the minister is not interfering”, he added.